Anybody playing Crusader Kings 2?

[Drewcifer]

Thoughts? Stories? Insight? Anything? I'm new to the series just picked it up today.

[Oberon]

Raptor has it and will likely divulge his tales of murder and intrigue shortly. :yeah:

[Raptor1]

Raptor has it and will likely divulge his tales of murder and intrigue shortly. :yeah:

No!

...Okay, fine.

Our story begins with Duke Conan II of the glorious independent Duchy of Brittany. Said Duke was unmarried, and so was Duchess Matilda of a Whole Bunch of Stuff. Seeing a chance to grab all of that, he immediately proposed marriage, and because Matilda obviously couldn't resist being married to someone named 'Conan' she accepted.

Alas, within several years Conan died at the age of 40 (Murder, I say!) and was inherited by his and Matilda's eldest sun, Charles I. Now, Charles I was very anxious to see his mother dead, as once that cow kicked the bucket he'd be first in line to inherit about half of Italy. But in the meantime a Crusade was called and he sailed for the Middle East. Despite occupying most of the Holy Land, he was promptly kicked out by overwhelming numbers and returned to Brittany. At this point Charles decided that France was acting rather suspiciously, so he asked the Holy Roman Emperor if he could join him (Only temporarily, of course). Now, Matilda, who at age 50 something still wasn't dead, decided to take her Duchies and declare independence from the Empire. However, she was promptly crushed and sent to the dungeon.

Charles then married the new Duchess of Normandy, and they had a son, who, highly imaginatively, was also called Charles. Deciding he was rather bored, he started plotting to murder his bastard half-brother, who was being rather a pest. He was also asked to join a conspiracy to lower crown authority in the Empire and accepted because he hated that whole crown authority thing. Finally, he married his sister off to the King of Scotland, since he seemed like a nice person who only had about even odds of trying to murder him.

This is the point everything fell apart. That bloody Bishop got drunk and decided to tell everyone about Charles' plot, which was not at all very nice. Then, the conspirators in the Holy Roman Empire decided to go ahead and start a civil war, which Charles hadn't really counted on. And then Duchess Matilda finally died, leaving Charles with a bunch of Italian Duchies and a horde of angry subjects.

After a moderately successful campaign against the Imperial armies for several months, Charles was pretty thoroughly crushed as his allies were incompetent. Several months later, he died (Again, no evidence, but murder!) and left the throne to the several-years' old Charles II, who was also the heir to the Duchy of Normandy.

Now, it seems that quite literally everybody in the realm hated young Charles II, and within six months he found himself with more knives in his back than there was surface area for. Being dead and all, the Duchy of Brittany transferred to some backstabbing treacherous woman, while the inherited Italian Duchies transferred to the aforementioned sister of Charles I, who I forgot the name of, the Queen Consort of Scotland. Said sister had a son, but he was of his father's dynasty and so was pretty useless. A short-lived plot to murder the King of Scotland turned out useless as she died four years later, and Prince Roger of Scotland inherited the rest of the dynasty's possessions.

And that was that. The moral of the story is: murder your half-brother before doing other things. Or something like that...

[seaniam81]

I've got it. Trying to be King of Wales, while bedding my niece, and attempting to kill the second wife. Oh and the most exciting thing! Norway invaded England and WON!

I have to say this is the smoothest release by Paradox.

[HunterICX]

Can't wait to get my hands on the game myself :D

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

Loved the first one and I'm still playing it every once in a while. I hadn't even heard of the sequel before threads on various forums kept popping up and people claiming to be playing it.

I guess my wishlist got another addition. :DL

(And possibly also my "Games to write AAR about" list.) ;)

[Drewcifer]

An aar... I would def like that Hottentot. So far from what I've played the game is drastically different every time you play it, of course certain historical things are favored to happen but a few choices by you could complete change all that and so every game is completely new and open ended.

[Hottentot]

An aar... I would def like that Hottentot.

I have been tempted to write an AAR of the first CK for a while, but haven't really picked it up. Much like the recent Evil Genius story: I had wanted to write it at least months before I actually started. The problem is the slow tempo and the repetitive nature of the game, as well as I really don't know for how many generations it should continue. It has lots of potential, but I need to do some serious planning beforehand if I'm going to write one.

The sequel will have to wait. I'm too cheapskate to pick it up as new and it will probably have some expansions sooner or later, so I'll be looking for the kind of bundle as CK and Deus Vult were when I bought them.

So the answer is "eventually", which might be tomorrow, after a year or after a decade, but far more likely "eventually" than "never". At least the original game is filled with such hilarity that I wouldn't even need to make stuff up too much, as long as I figured some reasonable way to pull it off while still keeping it as an interesting story. Need to take a much closer look on Oberon's Vicky AAR to ste...develop some good solutions.

The will is definitely there.

[Rilder]

Yeah been playing, pretty fun and actually pretty bug free on release which is a nice change compared to some other paradox releases. Though it is the Debut of Paradoxes new DLC instead of expansions system which is kinda meh.

Playing a French Count right now. Never played a CK game as anything ever higher up then a count and don't plan to start now. :O:

[Drewcifer]

Yeah I was playing as an Irish Earl, claimed about half the island and then stalled, couldn't get a legitment claim on a county I needed, waited, plotted, my son killed me, reunited my lands, finally got the claim and attacked, quickly realized I was out matched and hired mercs, ran out of money so they turned on me and well after the mercs raped and pillaged everything game over screen.

It is a hard game honestly... you have to sit and be patient and literally wait years for plans to mature because the game brutally punishes you for forcing your hand, even when you think you have an advantage small as it maybe.

[kiwi_2005]

No!

...Okay, fine.

Our story begins with Duke Conan II of the glorious independent Duchy of Brittany. Said Duke was unmarried, and so was Duchess Matilda of a Whole Bunch of Stuff. Seeing a chance to grab all of that, he immediately proposed marriage, and because Matilda obviously couldn't resist being married to someone named 'Conan' she accepted.

Alas, within several years Conan died at the age of 40 (Murder, I say!) and was inherited by his and Matilda's eldest sun, Charles I. Now, Charles I was very anxious to see his mother dead, as once that cow kicked the bucket he'd be first in line to inherit about half of Italy. But in the meantime a Crusade was called and he sailed for the Middle East. Despite occupying most of the Holy Land, he was promptly kicked out by overwhelming numbers and returned to Brittany. At this point Charles decided that France was acting rather suspiciously, so he asked the Holy Roman Emperor if he could join him (Only temporarily, of course). Now, Matilda, who at age 50 something still wasn't dead, decided to take her Duchies and declare independence from the Empire. However, she was promptly crushed and sent to the dungeon.

Charles then married the new Duchess of Normandy, and they had a son, who, highly imaginatively, was also called Charles. Deciding he was rather bored, he started plotting to murder his bastard half-brother, who was being rather a pest. He was also asked to join a conspiracy to lower crown authority in the Empire and accepted because he hated that whole crown authority thing. Finally, he married his sister off to the King of Scotland, since he seemed like a nice person who only had about even odds of trying to murder him.

This is the point everything fell apart. That bloody Bishop got drunk and decided to tell everyone about Charles' plot, which was not at all very nice. Then, the conspirators in the Holy Roman Empire decided to go ahead and start a civil war, which Charles hadn't really counted on. And then Duchess Matilda finally died, leaving Charles with a bunch of Italian Duchies and a horde of angry subjects.

After a moderately successful campaign against the Imperial armies for several months, Charles was pretty thoroughly crushed as his allies were incompetent. Several months later, he died (Again, no evidence, but murder!) and left the throne to the several-years' old Charles II, who was also the heir to the Duchy of Normandy.

Now, it seems that quite literally everybody in the realm hated young Charles II, and within six months he found himself with more knives in his back than there was surface area for. Being dead and all, the Duchy of Brittany transferred to some backstabbing treacherous woman, while the inherited Italian Duchies transferred to the aforementioned sister of Charles I, who I forgot the name of, the Queen Consort of Scotland. Said sister had a son, but he was of his father's dynasty and so was pretty useless. A short-lived plot to murder the King of Scotland turned out useless as she died four years later, and Prince Roger of Scotland inherited the rest of the dynasty's possessions.

And that was that. The moral of the story is: murder your half-brother before doing other things. Or something like that...


:haha::haha: That was a good read.

[Rilder]

Yeah I was playing as an Irish Earl, claimed about half the island and then stalled, couldn't get a legitment claim on a county I needed, waited, plotted, my son killed me, reunited my lands, finally got the claim and attacked, quickly realized I was out matched and hired mercs, ran out of money so they turned on me and well after the mercs raped and pillaged everything game over screen.

It is a hard game honestly... you have to sit and be patient and literally wait years for plans to mature because the game brutally punishes you for forcing your hand, even when you think you have an advantage small as it maybe.


That almost sounded like someone elses game I read about where some guy hired mercs but ran out of money so they defected to the enemy side which also couldn't pay for them so they defected and conquered the enemies lands for their own little nation.:rotfl2:

[Drewcifer]

Wasn't sure I was going to like this game, because it does have a different aspect of things your not really playing a from the driver seat like Total War, or Civ, your just playing person to person thru the ages of your family.

That said I am loving this game so far. However on a bit of a side note I now it wouldn't be as 'STRATEGY' intense and probably would have to be dumbed down some, imagine if they mixed Crusader Kings and Mount and Blade.. merged the diplomatic/Kingdom management of Crusader with the combat and character control of mount and blade... I think it would def have a shot at being a huge hit if not somewhat losing a some of its layers due to the large scope of the game.

[Spike88]

This is what Sengoku should've been like. The AI is way less fidgety

The only thing I wish for was a simple interface who shows you who is at war with who. Unless I'm missing something(I know all of the other Paradox games have this). Right now I'm playing as Sven I of Ors... a Swedish Duke. I've married a Duchess of an Italian state(Tuscany I believe), so my child should have land claims on that. I eventually plan on taking Sweden over.

[Drewcifer]

There isn't a global way to check all wars that I know of, but if you open up any characters screen it shows who they are fighting right next to their claims under their portrait.

However short of actually seeing troops on the march there is no way to bring up a screen that shows current wars THAT I know of.. I'm for all purposes a newb as I never played Crusader Kings, or Sengoku.. so everything still has the new car smell to me.

[Drewcifer]

Ah Spike the ledger, second button to the right under the mini map. Page 11 I think, lists all current wars.

[Crécy]

Waiting eagerly for my physical copy of the game! Unfortunately didn't get it for this weekend.

Definitely GOTY for me.

[Rilder]

Gotta love the satisfaction you get from going from a Count to a Duke to a King. :DL

http://i.imgur.com/cZKiA.png

Was hanging out as a Duke when all of the sudden the Pope was like: "Hey Dawg, I want you to become King of France"

17 years of brutal Civil war where tens of thousands of troops died and I managed to finally win. :woot:

[Hottentot]

That reminds me of how I started as a Danish count in the first CK, pledged loyalty to the Swedish king, waited for him to die and got elected as the new king of Sweden.

"My first decision as your new king is to abolish this obsolete electoral system and make the rulership hereditary like we have it in the civilized kingdoms.

Why are you all glaring me like that?"

[Drewcifer]

I like the Irish start, bring all the independent lords under boot and unite my island as its new king, then set about bringing Scotland and England under boot, with allowances for civil wars and crusaders and you know taking the day off to go for a hunt of plot to kill somebody I don't much like, or find a way to strip one of my nobles of their titles because they are being a pain in my ass and won't simply bow down to my every wish.

[Drewcifer]

For anyone on the fence here is a review, this game has scored highly with nearly every reviewer that has played it including myself. I highly suggest you play the free demo if your on the fence gives you something like 20 years or so which is NOT enough to but atleast gives you a taste.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/23/wot-i-think-crusader-kings-ii/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rockpapershotgun%2Fsteam+%28R ock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%3A+Steam+RSS%29

[soopaman2]

Clausewitz engine? Appears to be at least.

If so it is extremely moddable, and will be waiting to see what the community does to this.

I just bought it today, will be giving it my full attention tomorrow, when I am less whipped from work, and my brain functions better trying to learn a new game.:O:

[soopaman2]

I must say, I never thought politics would be fun.

I press a claim on a neighbor, after assassinating the Duke and his son.

We slug it out, I cant siege because he had 5 more defenders than my army. So I pulled back (do levies ever regen?)

Then my wife tries to kill my hier, most likely to help her father who was king of Norway. I have her beaten severely and executed. Then my other son turns up homosexual, which does wonders for reputation. So of course I beat him, but he took it the wrong way and I believe he had alot to do with what happened next.

Finally my Duke dies mysteriously, taking with him 2 of my council members, and 300 of my levies. Oh and it seems the guy I had a claim on has allies... I wonder how long I can hold out with my 123 remaining levies.

I have not lost this much since GWX.

Then again I am still learning. I never played the first Crusader Kings.

I am kinda annoyed you can't play Muslim or Pagan. In any game about the crusades, I always like to turn the tables, and conquer Rome as a Muslim. I feel cheated.

[Rilder]

(do levies ever regen?)


Yep, in fact you can send your marshal to make them regen faster.

I am kinda annoyed you can't play Muslim or Pagan. In any game about the crusades, I always like to turn the tables, and conquer Rome as a Muslim. I feel cheated.I'm pretty sure there is mods out there so you can play as them.

In addition I'm pretty sure its possible for at some point to end up with a Muslim ruler just through normal play, I'm not sure how, however. I do know someone in a steam chat I hang out in had it happen.

If that fails you could always embrace a heresy and take down the pope. :O:

[soopaman2]

Yep, in fact you can send your marshal to make them regen faster.

I'm pretty sure there is mods out there so you can play as them.

In addition I'm pretty sure its possible for at some point to end up with a Muslim ruler just through normal play, I'm not sure how, however. I do know someone in a steam chat I hang out in had it happen.

If that fails you could always embrace a heresy and take down the pope. :O:

I did find a mod called PMM that lets you play pagans and Muslims. Forgot you had to register the game to see the good forums at PP.

Now to push those filthy Christians out of Iberia!

GOOOOO MOOOOOORS!

[Drewcifer]

Yep Levies regen as soon as you pull them out.

Also its been hinted at SEVERAL times by the lead developer that there will be an expansion that fleshes out the Muslim, Mongol, Pagan cultures and makes them playable.

Just at release they focused on ONE culture and made it bug free for release as Paradox really wanted to beat that "wait until its patched before you buy it" cloud they had over all their games.

Also I have a swedish game in which I am the King and my entire kingdom is Norse... So we praise Odin and crush the christians... however the pope sends crusades against me all the time..

[soopaman2]

Yep Levies regen as soon as you pull them out.

Also its been hinted at SEVERAL times by the lead developer that there will be an expansion that fleshes out the Muslim, Mongol, Pagan cultures and makes them playable.

Just at release they focused on ONE culture and made it bug free for release as Paradox really wanted to beat that "wait until its patched before you buy it" cloud they had over all their games.

Also I have a swedish game in which I am the King and my entire kingdom is Norse... So we praise Odin and crush the christians... however the pope sends crusades against me all the time..

I commend them for wanting to release a fleshed out game, rather than a bunch of fragmented crap.

I read (somewhere) about muslim and pagan family structures being different than Christian ones (they didn't adhere to counties, and duchys, their system was different.) I guess they want to flesh it out. Which is better than releasing broken junk IMHO.

I guess they need something to put into the DLC, but Paradox is usually better than the huge gaming companies in terms of "bang for your buck"

I am biased though, I am a paradox fanboy. They make games that require a brain to play.

[soopaman2]

Oh boy! As if the homosexuality trait wasn't enough it seems he got the syphillus too...

Why do my sons always have to be so... Yechhhh... unappealing to the other countries...

Can I spawn a normal kid, or is it a product of Norwegian and German brides?

I will try inbreeding next, seems safest.

(disclaimer: I would love my real life son if he was gay, but I hate him in a game based on intrigue and reputation) I am no bigot outside the context of this game.

[Spike88]

I've been meaning to put more time into the game, but I've spent most of my gaming time fixing my mod pack for MC, or messing about in it. :haha:

[Drewcifer]

Wait until you get a Chaste, Homosexual, Ugly son... good luck having any diplomatic relations or an heir...

[Drewcifer]

From Paradox rep: There are currently no achievements in the game, not by oversight, but intentional. They will come later, and by that, I don't mean in a hotfix, it will be a while. Sorry, I know lots of you enjoy achievements, I do too, but we had to focus elsewhere for this game to be as good as we could make it on release!

Just thought I'd post that if anybody was wondering, I was a little curious myself so I went to look for an answer.

[Rilder]

King Ogier De Limoges takes the throne of throne of France after the death of the Great Queen.

First act as King: Shag his Brother's Wife :rotfl2:

[Drewcifer]

So what did we cut from Crusader Kings II? Basically, this:

A medieval style chronicle with annual entries
Trade post holdings built by the republics (Venice, Genoa, etc)
Hiring ships from the great republics
Relics that can be found, looted, and used to build cathedrals
Loads of very rare narrative events (like "The Gates of Hell") with multi-generational effects
A viceroy/drots/great seneschal council position for each kingdom held
Cadet branches of dynasties
Adventures - younger sons raising an army and going off to conquer something on their own


Will all these things become DLC? Probably not, but some likely will, and others might be patched in for free (or, well, basically paid for by those who do buy our DLC.) Note that playable non-Christians, republics and theocracies were never planned (though always considered good material for expansions.)

[Hottentot]

Well now you sons of a silly person made me buy it. :stare:

First impressions. The interface is confusing. I'm sure I will get used to it in due time, but for now I'm constantly at a loss where to go or what to do. The system felt simpler in the prequel, especially finding what provinces belong to whom and who is related to whom. The information all in all is harder to find.

The counties don't seem to get much love. The original game was full of counties, whereas now they seem to be all duchies or kingdoms. I don't mind being a vassal to someone in the beginning, but there is now much less choice than in the first game, because the dukes simply own most of the provinces by themselves.

The dynasty system seems to be improved. I like how you can gain or lose prestige by marrying. Makes sense that your heir shouldn't marry a bloody peasant without someone snickering behind your back. The family tree is also novel, but I could do without it as well. Intrigue at least for now seems to be a more potential tool than before and I like the humorous touch in the events.

The tutorials were humorous too, but I think it wasn't intentional. Advanced tutorial about economy: "Economy exists. You make money with economy. You buy stuff with money. The end."

All in all, it's Crusader Kings alright. Will have to play a lot more to say if it's better or worse than before and probably wait for a few truckloads of patches as well. It would be unfair to compare this to fully patched CK + Deus Vult.

[soopaman2]

Just a few days ago I married my cousin, because she had a kingdom claim, she was down with it. Heck she grabbed my junk, and I was just a Duke. She was askin for it.

I wanted my own version of the inbred Charles V a few hundred years earlier. (silly inbreeding Hapsbugs)

We even had kids, our first was a set of twins, one was an imbicile, and the other stuttered. Something "bad" happened to the moron.

I then had extramarital sex with my sons wife and produced a bastard, which somehow died bloated and green, just like his moron half brother. Funny how that happens.

Then I inherit the kingdom of Aragon, and Leon. followed by a brutal war against Galacia which ends in a stalemate.

Then I got a Jihad called on me, and dealt with massive deathstacks from every mudpit from Iberia to the Levant.

Muslims are way overpowered in this game and the pope/crusades are not organized enough, my only complaint I think. Too many crusades seem to fail due to fractured forces, but the Muslim nations always seem to land persistant deathstacks.

HRE and ERE are kinda vastly overpowered as well. They seem to instantly jack crown laws up really high, really early and hamstring you as a Doux/Duke. Leaving you to yawning, and max time compression for years at a clip. Fighting for independance is suicide, you are just screwed, sitting on your claims, because you cannot wage war (nor can you afford to muster a 20k plus doomstack to oppose what they send if you rebel), due to crown laws.

[Hottentot]

Ugh. It's Crusader Kings, alright. There should be a sticker on the game's box: "Warning! Causes serious addiction!"

I have so far been playing in England. Started as a count, but was promoted to duke almost instantly. This felt a little too easy compared to the first CK where even becoming a duke was an achievement. Now my king was fighting a war and I was just sitting in my little county without doing anything. After the war he all the sudden said: "Hey dude, thanks, take a duke title!" Maybe it was all those "Have a nice war, sire!" -cards that I sent? You know, it's the intention that counts. :)

Now I have expanded to Wales province by province. I own everything in there except for one province. I'm trying to get the count there go independent, then declare war on him and press my de jure claims. I love those: being a duke of certain area, even if in name only, gives me a legal claim to all the counties in it. It makes sense. On the other hand, I'm a little disappointed with fabricating the claims: it feels too simple to just send the chancellor to a province and tell him to get me a claim. I wish they had somehow utilized the plot and ambition feature in this. The feature now feels completely useless.

I feel powerful enough now. I'm waiting and saving money, maybe getting a few more provinces still. Once England goes to another civil war (seems to happen fairly often), I'll hire all the mercenaries I can get and declare independence. Then I declare myself the king of Brythonia. The mercenaries are also a great addition in the sequel. Not only do they make historical sense, but now even a count with enough money can declare war on a much more powerful enemy.

Also, the family members are still a source of endless hilarity. I decided to give my son a duke title, because he was my heir and I wanted him to get some prestige already before I die. I just forgot that obviously he can't be my vassal anymore after that, because I'm a duke too. OK, fair enough. He now has his one province duchy, let him have it. Wait? What is he doing? No seriously, why is he raising levies? What is he going to do with those 250 peasants?

Oh, that's right. In his endless might and infinite wisdom he had decided to declare war on king of England in order to become independent. Needless to say it made it into the annals of world records under the title of "shortest war ever fought."


Muslims are way overpowered in this game and the pope/crusades are not organized enough, my only complaint I think. Too many crusades seem to fail due to fractured forces, but the Muslim nations always seem to land persistant deathstacks.

Yeah, I've seen people complaining about this on the official forum too (which, on a sidenote, is one of the worst cesspits I have ever visited in the internet.) I can't say I totally agree, at least not yet, but then again I haven't had almost any contact with them yet.

They are supposed to be advanced in this era, and they have easy time in Iberia where the Christian kingdoms are fractured. Invading the holy land, on the other hand, is going on a war far away in their heartlands. France could probably stop them, but it's pretty fractured as well and having its own disputes with the HRE and England.

However, the muslims don't seem to do anymore ridiculous sudden moves that they did in CK 1, like for example randomly invading Norway. So far in my game they have been content with staying where they are and strenghtening their power there. All in all, it so far seems very believeable to me. I'll come and join the general raging against them once I have played a little more and got my arse kicked by them. :DL

[HunterICX]

Playing CKII with Raptor
where I play a count part of the kingdom of Castille, and Raptor started off in Wales.
Since the Crown authority was low I immediatly plotted to take over my neighbouring count but my king said ''NO!!'' when raising the Crown Authority...

Fine...well if I can't have that county then I'll declare war on that kingdom right next to me (only consisting out of 2 provinces) when I got my claim and booted the king out, meanwhile my king was well underway slicing up the kingdom of Leon in several wars and also expanding to the east of Spain.

Navarra where the king I fought earlier now ruled was next on my list, got a claim and went to war. Meanwhile my king died and was his son took the throne a greedy little bastard as while I was trying to get Navarra for my own to grand myself title of Duke he made a claim on it as well...but I took it first :O:

However I message arrived that I should give the County to him....
after giving it a deep thought I declined and rebelled against my king :D
I thought I was doomed but apart from that his armies where weakened by beeing constantly in wars other counties rebelled against our ''Tyrant'' king too :haha: it couldn't get any better and thanks to fiances from Wales I could keep up the mercenaries I hired and managed to humiliate the king of Castille so much that his son took the title of King and he was demoted to Prince :rotfl2:

stuff like that makes the game just awesome.

Now I'm Duke of Navarra :rock:

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

Sheesh this can be frustrating. There is this apparently 1,000 years old English duke who periodically goes to war against the king of England to depose him, gets beaten badly, then waits and starts all over again. That one last county I want in Wales is his vassal. I have at least three times now tried to go to war with him when he is at war with the king to claim that county as my own, but as soon as I get my armies besieging his holdings, he makes peace with the king and then my war ends too, because the bloody king says vassals can't fight with each other.

It's an annoying stalemate. The king AI is too dumb to revoke the titles of that duke, apparently trusting that he won't start the next civil war after the, I don't know, fifth or sixth attempt at the same idiotic goal. The duke, on the other hand, will rather surrender to the king, spoiling his own little war, than make a separate peace with me and lose one county. Gah!!

[Hottentot]

Finally! I joined yet another civil war to lower the crown authority. It succeeded perfectly, and once the king became practically powerless, I was allowed to declare war on that idiot duke and claim my precious county of Powys. Then I still had to fabricate claim on Cornwall and take it too to have enough provinces for a kingdom. And then, finally, after over 100 years of vassalage under the cursed Godwyn dynasty, I managed to claim independence after another bloody war. Hooray!

My crowning ceremony for kingdom of Brythain could have gone better. It went something like this, I imagine...
Me: "And now, by the power of God almighty, I crown myself..."
[From the outside]: "TOO-TO-TO-TOOOO!"
Me: "Oh, how nice, you arranged a horn orchestra to celebrate me!"
Courtier: "Uh, sire, we did not."
Me: "Really? Then who is playing those..."
[From the outside, with heavy French accent]: "Sinner! Prepare to meet your devil lord and be cleansed by ze righteous fire!!"
Me: "Huh?"

Yeah, turns out some random French duchess had figured that since I had been excommunicated (on the request of some random Italian bishop I hadn't ever heard of), it was a good idea to declare war on me just for fun. So we went on this short little trip to tell her that a minor duchess starting a war against a man who had just made the king of England humbly bow before him twice now is not a good idea.

Just to be sure that it wouldn't happen again, I appointed an anti-pope. That should take care of that. The random French duchess was also nice enough to apologize for her silliness by paying me lots of money for all that wasted time. So after the little delay I continued the ceremony and happily became a king.

A screenshot of my kingdom (a moment before I formally became a king, but the provinces are all there).

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3804/empirey.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/201/empirey.jpg/)

Once I became a king, the English king realized he still had some claims on my counties and insisted that I'd drive him back to Thames for the third time. He has since admitted that having his dog's niece's best friend's owner's namesake be a distant relative to one of my drinking buddies was a silly reason to start a war for. He has promised not to attack me again for the next 10 or so years.

Funny thing is, that truces in the game seem to be one sided: I never made such promise, and my last truce with him is expiring quickly. So my next plan is to usurp the duchy of Oxford from him (we keep usurping it from each other every few years) and then conquer the province to stop that game.

I echo what has been said in this thread earlier: this game is marvelous!

[Drewcifer]

Also incredibly addictive and a giant time sink. The game is great pure and simple. Glad you are enjoying it!

[soopaman2]

I attempted a game as the vassal of the HRE. More specifically the Duchy of Toscana. I want to form an Italy for Italians, and push the Norman and Papal scum out, but my liege thinks his emperor title means something. He jacked the crown laws way higher than he should be able to early game, leaving me with my thumb in my rectum.

All he does is kill my damned levies fighting inconclusive wars. I want out.

Considering a war of independance is suicide, I see no other option than to suck it up. But it is not fun. :damn:

I played as a liege to England, Scotland, France, and Galacia, and they all let you brawl to your hearts content. They had no problems with you expanding there realms.

So I am asking, is there an alternative, except sitting on my thumbs, or picking a liege who isn't an emperor?

:down:Hey HRE/ERE? Real Romans are Italian. Fakers.:03:

[HunterICX]

Well that was short
my only son&heir Al-Duin finally got of age, got married and became incapable....game over :shifty:

love it :haha:

HunterICX

[soopaman2]

Well that was short
my only son&heir Al-Duin finally got of age, got married and became incapable....game over :shifty:

love it :haha:

HunterICX


Yeah Paradox games are quite the opposite of other game companies.

Say you play Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell: Conviction. etc.., you will eventually beat the game. Even if you turn it on easy, and cheat.

But Paradox games. You will lose. They are not happy unless you do. You can even cheat and still lose.
Losing is fun, but it stinks.

Which makes winning so much more fulfilling.

It is nice to see there are alot of intellectual gamers still around, who could appreciate games made by Paradox.:salute:

(here at least, all my friends are morons, still drooling over Call of Duty killstreaks)

[Raptor1]

I attempted a game as the vassal of the HRE. More specifically the Duchy of Toscana. I want to form an Italy for Italians, and push the Norman and Papal scum out, but my liege thinks his emperor title means something. He jacked the crown laws way higher than he should be able to early game, leaving me with my thumb in my rectum.

All he does is kill my damned levies fighting inconclusive wars. I want out.

Considering a war of independance is suicide, I see no other option than to suck it up. But it is not fun. :damn:

I played as a liege to England, Scotland, France, and Galacia, and they all let you brawl to your hearts content. They had no problems with you expanding there realms.

So I am asking, is there an alternative, except sitting on my thumbs, or picking a liege who isn't an emperor?

:down:Hey HRE/ERE? Real Romans are Italian. Fakers.:03:

There's a plot to start a civil war to reduce Crown Authority, you know. Just need to get a sufficient amount of Dukes to back you up...

[soopaman2]

There's a plot to start a civil war to reduce Crown Authority, you know. Just need to get a sufficient amount of Dukes to back you up...


Yeah. Will go for it, but I seek independence without a bloodbath. I can form the kingdom, but the Emperor title will always trump it. Making me simply a vassal king ("King in Prussia" situation comes to mind)

Pretty much a duke with a cool title, and a Duchy restriction. (in a game mechanic sense)

Freeeeeeedom!

I will stick with it, preserve titles, and hope to catch them during a civil war.

Or I can game the system and make myself a super-duke. :)
(super-dukes are epic, but very gamey)

[Hottentot]

I have been an idiot. I should have remembered the most important lesson from CK 1: make love, not war. I have been wasting my time and resources on useless wars for single counties, when I could have just as well been making babies and getting it all that way.

I'm correcting the mistake as we speak, though. Once I got Oxford and pressed the claim of my vassal for the county of Dewon, I realized that England has been divided by only very few individuals who have ridiculous amounts of titles. And daughters.

The duke of Lancaster was overjoyed when I proposed that his daughter would marry me, a king. Think of the prestige, man! Unfortunately my dear future father-in-law, who was like a real father and a genuine idol to me, never got to enjoy that prestige, because in the wedding he suffered an accident involving steps of a tower and banana peels.

My baby mach...dearest wife made me a few children. Unfortunately our marriage was a short one, because after a few children, she too went to investigate the tower and didn't notice the bright yellow bastard on the steps. I was overwrought with grief and can only hope that her heir, my son, can be as good ruler to the lands of Lancaster as she was. While I will never get over the loss, I'm sure this was the will of the almighty. Funny thing how I always told her: "Dear, we should have only a few sons, not more, because then they will start arguing about the lands and cause a huge civil war in the future."

My poor first born son was lonely without her mother. I tried to fix the problem by getting him a friend. The duke of York (and a few other prestigious titles) fortunately had a daughter of about the same age as him. I'm a little worried how it goes, though. The duke seems to be cursed for his sinful life, and for some reason all his sons have been meeting their fruity end while playing in the tower of his castle. I have forbidden my son and his future wife (now the heiress of the duke) from ever going there.

My people have been worried and asking: "sire, this is a temperate zone (whatever that is), where do all these bananas come from?!" How should I know?! Maybe they migrate or something! The swallows could carry them. African swallows!

- - - - - -

On a more serious note, how do you guys handle vassals? I have so far noticed that making my brothers vassals is a bad idea, but more distant relatives such as uncles are pretty safe. Do you give lots of land to a few vassals or divide them among many vassals (that would make the rebellions easier to put down, but then you would have to take care of the relations more).

The antipope is great. I can randomly excommunicate anyone I don't like in my realm and take everything they have. It's almost too easy. Especially good for rebellious vassals, since then you can take their titles away without anyone complaining. I have noticed that if you put down a rebellious vassal in a war, you can only revoke one title. That doesn't make any sense: he has clearly shown that he wants my head on the block, so why would I let him keep any titles at all?

The warscore is pretty wonky. It seems that I can slaughter the English king's doomstack and it gives me a few percents of warscore. Then he retreats to the North, finds a few hundred of my Irish allies in there being drunk and doing nothing, drives them back to the sea and it suddenly makes my warscore go to negative?

[Drewcifer]

Personally I opt for having lots of weak vassals over a few strong ones. I tend to have lots of counts, and then just a few dukes so I don't have my hands full if things go south.

As for the not being able to strip titles, I have no idea, I suppose its just a gamey rule. Obviously yes I'd strip the guy of all power and banish him from my realm but you have to do it in a 10 step program of giving him chances until you finally have taken all of his lands and then can banish him.

The warscore is wonky as hell no doubt, but I think it has factors and 'points' under the hood we don't understand. For instance I was at war with scotland as England I had to nearly take all of scotlands lands for my war score to get 50% but they took york and I get -75% out of no where. That said I defeated the king of scotlands army at a war score of -90% and captured him and instantly got a 100% and the war was over.

[HunterICX]

It doesn't get any better then rebelling against your king, defeat his mighty army and capture him in the process :haha:

but that's not even the best part...shortly after that the pope excommunicates him :har:

So....*slides thumb over the blade of his axe*

KNEEL!

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

It's official: the kingdom of Brythain has finally united the lands between Wales and Northampton, the ancient home county of my dynasty. This was mostly because the duke in the middle of these lands decided to go heretic. Being a good catholic that I am (what do you mean "-200 piety"?!), I declared bunch of holy wars on him to bring the only true faith back to these lands.

It sort of worked. I got the lands, alright. But then my subjects realized that the heretics have much more fun in parties and they started converting to heresy instead. It's spreading like a wildfire. I think my "screw the pope" policies for the last three or four generations may have helped in disillusioning my people.

The inheritance scam worked perfectly: I now own all in all about 47% of the English counties and am still going to inherit at least a few. Once it goes above 50%, I'll usurp the title of king from that current monarch, whoever he is. I these days count them more as wars than persons and I'm not sure if they are even Godwins anymore.

What I didn't see coming, however, was the second most important lesson from CK 1 to bite me in the arse: "Your first born son and the most likely heir is inevitably an imbecile." Once my old king kicked the bucked and sonny inherited, I saw that he had been busy while being vassal under the English king: not only had he managed to get himself excommunicated, he also had converted to heretic himself. A bastard son crowned it all, but at least he had at some point managed to get properly laid as well. Also, all my careful tutoring was right next to wasted, he was now literally a walking collection of sins and bad traits. Ooo, joy...

I divided the kingdom heavily among sycophants to avoid demesne limits and rebellions. The current king was already in his 40s when he inherited. I'm waiting for him to die, so that the next heir can inherit the duchy of York and there will be progress again.

You know what the best part is? I was so sure of this drooling moron's inevitable success when he was born, that I wanted to have some fun and ironically named him "Bernard".

[soopaman2]

I just had the oddest game.

I am playing as a duke in england, forgot his name ATM, he didn't last long. The fella NE of English crown lands with 3 counties.

I (out of luck) assassinated the King Of England, which ended the war with Norway (for some reason) Willy the bastard was easily dealt with afterwards, without any intervention by me.

I marry Urrakka of Navarra. Then get 3 lucky assassinations off. She is now queen of Navarra, with my son in line.

I then plot on 2 English kings and kill them, to the point where my hier is in line for the throne of Navarra and England.

I am on top of the world.

Sadly England seems to be jumping into every stupid holy war the HRE decides to push, and kills my Duke in combat (as he was leading an army)

Then all hell broke loose. My heir was 2 years old, and he was assassinated by Urrakka who was heir to everything.

Dynasty over.

Meltdowns happen so fast.

Urrakka is just a nasty woman. Always is, in every game I play. No wonder I screwed all my courtiers.

[Drewcifer]

You can have all the experience in the world and a grand scheme laid out but this game will brutally punish you everytime.

I try my best to find the balance between kissing ass, and grabbing power.

Its hard, but if you can have enough friends and few enemies you can 'survive' the game. My biggest problem is I always get greedy and inevitably everything goes south and fast.

[HunterICX]

You tell me :DL

Rebelling against your king while that brat has 10.000 men....:damn:
ow and assasinating him....brightest Idea...he assasinates right back at yah :haha: and he does succeed :shifty:

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

Great. Just great. Now it's history that comes foiling my plans. History of all freaking things! I never thought my major subject in uni would make me curse when playing a game (otherwise occasionally of course).

I finally did it. I took the crown of England. It took ages, because the game has a weird "you can't usurp a title when the holder is at war" rule. The English king was fighting literally decades with somebody, and just as he stopped one war, he or someone else started next. Once he finally stopped even for one day for tea and biscuits, I knocked on his door and said: "Hi I own, like, over half of your kingdom, so hand over the crown."

Then became a problem: I noticed that as his last evil trick against my plans, the English king had in his infinite wisdom implemented a seniority succession to England. So all of that precious land and power was going to someone completely else than my heir. Sure, still to the dynasty, but I had worked 200 years to get that bloody title just out of spite. I was not going to lose it after just one generation! So let's change the inheritance law...

Then came history and foiled all my plans. History, which helpfully reminded me what the medieval society was like. First of all: I couldn't implement a primogeniture, because the crown authority law was only medium. And I couldn't raise crown authority, because I myself had lowered it from high to medium in order to make my rebelling vassals like me more. OK, OK, I get it that there are laws even in medieval England! Fine! Let's not implement primogeniture then! We'll make this a happy elective democracy, where everyone who wants to live is going to vote for my son.

Oh wait, I can't do that either. Why not? Because the game, once again historically, says that I can't rock the boat if there is even one vassal more important than a freaking count that has a negative opinion of me. Reading this made me want to quote king Foltest from the Witcher: "I'm a %¤#* king!!" No, no you're not. You're just a man with a funny shiny hat. Power equals vassals. That's history for you.

After that people who didn't like me started mysteriously slipping on banana peels again. I replaced them with the best yes-men I could find: so what if this guy is an incapable imbecile dwarf, he bloody likes me and the other guy doesn't! So now England is a happy elective kingdom, where everyone who doesn't vote for my son gets an extra ration of vitamin B6. At least until I can implement higher crown authority and make it a primogeniture.

Oh, and when I said that the first born son is inevitably an imbecile, I didn't think fate would take it so literally. Guess which trait my current ruler has? The vassals hate him, ladies especially because they all have "attraction for imbecile" penalty. Oh, and then one male duke had that too. I'll let you imagine which trait he had.

[Raptor1]

Didn't you have any slightly less incompetent second-born that could be arranged to take the throne instead of the useless first-born?

[Crécy]

Classic CK: just when you have finally accomplished everything you dreamed of, all goes wrong.

Still, this is a game where I don't mind losing.

[HunterICX]

Classic CK: just when you have finally accomplished everything you dreamed of, all goes wrong.

Still, this is a game where I don't mind losing.

I think the best bit of this game is the struggle to keep it like you want it but everything really everything goes wrong.

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

Didn't you have any slightly less incompetent second-born that could be arranged to take the throne instead of the useless first-born?

I noticed it too late. The current king is the first grand son of the previous king: the previous king's heir was actually not that bad at all, and I was hoping he would inherit, but then I guess one of my bananas found back home when he passed away at the age of 34.

Once I realized that I was going to lose my kingdom to an imbecile (literally), I tried assassinating him multiple times, but it didn't succeed and eventually I ran out of money too. I also tried seeing if there was any loophole I could use to put him in prison and execute him, but no. I even tried giving him a bishopric, but it didn't succeed either, because I had already made him a duke in Ireland for early prestige gain. Then the already old king passed away, and ding, all hail King David II "The Moronic".

In retrospect I should have just imprisoned and executed him and take the tyranny penalty, because the old king was going to die soon anyway. It's still manageable. He isn't going to expand the kingdom a lot, because all the time is spent watching the vassals, but on the other hand he has forced me to pay extra attention to the stability of the realm. I don't think I have ever, either in CK 1 or 2, switched vassals so often and spent so much time in finding the most compliant sycophants to be my dukes. Once his hopefully more competent son inherits (yes, the imbecile at least managed to get laid), the stable kingdom creates opportunities for some crusading or otherwise productive stuff.

Disclaimer: "That's the plan!"


Classic CK: just when you have finally accomplished everything you dreamed of, all goes wrong.

Aye, I'd say it's one of the funniest things in this game, the positive frustration. "Why doesn't anything ever go as I wanted" is actually a good thing for once.

[Raptor1]

If you had an elective monarchy, couldn't you just vote for a competent heir and have him elected? I'm not sure what determines who your vassals vote for, but I managed to get non-first borns to be elected when I tried a few times (Usually when other children were in line to inherit titles or claims) so I think they follow your vote if they like you enough.

[Hottentot]

England became elective only under the imbecile. Only he got the title because, as I said, the former English king was too busy having wars to listen to my old ruler telling him facts about his quickly disintegrating realm. Had it not been for the imbecile, I would probably have had vassals like me more, wouldn't have had to lower the crown authority and England would now be a primogeniture like any other civilized kingdom. :x

Curious by the way, have you found any historical characters from different eras? I know that at least el Cid exists, and traced Alexander Nevsky down today. Then the kings are probably all historical when the game starts. Habsburgs exist as a dynasty, or so I've heard: I think they start as counts. Any others?

[Hottentot]

Patch 1.05 should be here in a few weeks. Paradox has released some information (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?597830-CK-II-1.05-Development-Diary-1-of-3-March-30th-2012&) about it, and so far it sounds good. The crusading mechanism was good as it was, I think, but I still like it that they are paying extra attention to it, since it is (or should be) a major feature in the game.

I'm just hoping they add at least at some point the ability to ask the pope for a crusade. Right now the AI handles it, and doesn't always do a very good job. Uh, sure guys, let's all attack together a meaningless little North African province in the middle of the Sunni caliphate, while at the same time the muslims just ransacked all the wine cellars in Northern France. The distantant targets might also be, why the AI kings rarely go on a crusade in the first place, and the meaningless little North African province can stay as the crusade target for over 100 years. Maybe if there was a possibility to have a few crusades for different targets going on at the same time?

The first DLC has also been announced (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?597846-First-Major-DLC-What-you-requested%21&). I'm underwhelmed. The "major DLC" is a vanity feature that many other games have implemented from day one? Name your own dynasty? Build your own character? I can't see myself paying for this, unless it's part of a larger pack. I wish they had focused more on a real expansion-like DLC that could have been more expensive, but added some major ingame content, like playable muslims and pagans. This one, in my opinion, goes right down to the "horse armor" and "pink skin for your favorite gun" category.

[Crécy]

The first DLC has also been announced (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?597846-First-Major-DLC-What-you-requested%21&). I'm underwhelmed. The "major DLC" is a vanity feature that many other games have implemented from day one? Name your own dynasty? Build your own character? I can't see myself paying for this, unless it's part of a larger pack. I wish they had focused more on a real expansion-like DLC that could have been more expensive, but added some major ingame content, like playable muslims and pagans. This one, in my opinion, goes right down to the "horse armor" and "pink skin for your favorite gun" category.

Disappointing... I'll buy it though if the price is reasonable. Say... 2€.

[HunterICX]

Disappointing... I'll buy it though if the price is reasonable. Say... 2***8364;.

Blue coins :O:
Since I purchase quite some games from Gamergate I received some Blue coins that I can use for DLC for the paradox games.

HunterICX

[Drewcifer]

While I will be the first to agree this is a feature that SHOULD have been in the released version of the game and not later tacked on.. I'm going to purchase it day one. I've already bought the mongol faces, additional coat of arms, and the music dlc, and I plan on buying all the DLC for this game.

It has all been reasonably cheap so far, and honestly I feel like if I dont' fully support this game I wouldn't be doing my part. There is NO other game like CK out there on the market, and if this game isn't profitable for Paradox we won't see a CK3.... which is something I simply could not allow to happen on my watch.

[Hottentot]

Meh, I'm just anti-DLC in general and had hoped at least Paradox would have stayed out of them. I would gladly pay even the price of the full game again for a well fleshed out expansion pack that involved lots of these small little features or something really major, but this whole "buying drop by drop" is something I haven't ever liked. I can think of a few games with good DLCs, but far more with bad ones. Seems so far that CK 2, unfortunately, is going to the latter category.

On the other hand, I should be and am joyous that they are making this (frankly stupid) vanity feature a paid DLC, while the real changes to the game mechanics and improving them are being released in a free patch. :up:

[Drewcifer]

Again... I'm not left much of a case to argue... other then we don't know the actual price for this 'vanity' dlc and if it lands for 2.99 or something I highly doubt it will cause much of an uproar.

That said I am in favor of 15-20 dollar expansions that fully change the game, or add features. Like "Fall of the Pagans" expansion where you can play a pagan and attempt to unite and destroy the damned heretics of other religions.

However my point still stands if they hit me for 1.99 and 2.99 here and there for bits of gameplay, or small ideas that didn't make it in the game on initial release they still have my full support. CK2 is a unique game of which there is nothing even close.

[Crécy]

Price for the best DLC ever is $5. Must also post this awesome trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nvf8X_bXDHI

Wonder if it'll work with steam version if I buy that from GG.

[HunterICX]

Price for the best DLC ever is $5. Must also post this awesome trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nvf8X_bXDHI

Wonder if it'll work with steam version if I buy that from GG.

iirc isn't the DLC for CKII only to be bought with Gamersgate's Blue coins from the in-game store?

HunterICX

[Crécy]

iirc isn't the DLC for CKII only to be bought with Gamersgate's Blue coins from the in-game store?

HunterICX

I have a physical copy so my in-game store is steam... Guess I have to buy it from steam then to ensure it works correctly with my version of the game.

[Drewcifer]

5 is fair for that dlc as far as I am concerned.

I buy my dlc thru steam just fine.

[HunterICX]

Interesting so if you buy it from Gamersgate the ingame store is Gamersgate and when you buy it from Steam the ingame store is Steam :hmmm:

as said with DLC like this I have good use for those blue coins I'm left with after purchases on GG :D

HunterICX

[soopaman2]

Duchy of Provence, and Duchy of Dauphin....check

Fabricated claim on Savoy...Check

Independence from the HRE thanks to me hopping on them when they jumped in the Fracas over England with their pal in Norway, Jumped in too late to save them, but late enought for me to rack up some gold for cheap mercs (imprisoned and killed 7 "important men", made my point to the kaiser)... Check

All my non family Vassals hate me, but I got 3 castles (with squire lists) in my Demense, and money for mercs if need be...check. (I have 2 wonderful sons who would make great counts.)

Even earned "the great" title without using the ambition.

So how long before it melts down?:har:

I am not going for King of Burgundy, I am trying the primogeniture Super Duke strategy. I only miss out on free investiture, but can hold many duchy titles within my dynasty as long as possible without having to worry about penalties or having to deal with the crap that happens with gavelkind when your dynasty head dies.

I will destroy The HRE, as well as that Capet scum.

I hope:O:

(Paradox: Home of the games you love to lose at)

[Hottentot]

Well, it's done: the first full campaign is finally over. Started as a count in England, ended as the king of Manyplaces. I created or usurped all in all 6 kingdoms, but in the end held only 5, because I gave the kingdom of Jerusalem to one of my sons for roleplaying purposes. He managed to lose over half of it in far less time than it took me to create it in the first place. On the other hand, I didn't care, because I had originally created it as a throw away kingdom just for the huge prestige and piety bonus.

The sequel is a clear improvement over CK 1, even in such early stage of its life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the future patches and expansions will bring. I miss some stuff from CK 1, such as friendships and (yes, still) more conveniently available information. The occasional micro management is still something that hampers the experience, but nothing that couldn't be lived with or, better yet, improved at some point.

My main gripe is, that the game got almost pointless once I had acquired enough land. Until that point it had been a struggle: getting the kingdom of England felt like an achievement, because I had set it as my goal and worked for it for a long time. But after that I had no idea what I would do other than get more land. OK, so Ireland was easy enough. Scotland I didn't even want, so I was content with installing my cousin there as a puppet king. Then I really didn't have anything meaningful to do, so I decided I might as well conquer France piece by piece from the independent heretics (there wasn't, at that point, a single catholic province left in there) and then convert it back to the parent religion. It was easy, because the solution to any war was: "Raise 100,000 soldiers and send them all to one place."

The whole Jerusalem project started that way too. I wanted to use those levies for something, so I sent them over and over again to bash any religion in the world that started with the letter I, including the Iconoclast heretics. At that point there wasn't really any tactics or sense of strategy left in the game. All I had to do was to land anywhere I wanted with (at most) about 200,000 drunken English tourists, have them assault every single clay cottage they found and then send a "do you give up or shall we continue" note to anyone I happened to be at war with.

Sure, I still played the inheritance game too and got three duchies from Scotland eventually because I had claims on them, but...why? If I wanted, I could have smashed the whole country anyway, anytime I wanted. When I started the game, I thought that maybe I'd just take the English crown, then grow my power in the isles, but never expand into the continent. But there just wasn't enough left to do. There wasn't anything I could do with my huge kingdom, other than make it even bigger with more senseless wars. The domestic policies just didn't exist. The only plot I could ever start as a mighty king was to kill my wife.

Keeping the vassals happy wasn't difficult except maybe during a succession, but even then a few gifts and honorary titles were usually all I needed. Actually, I at some points hoped they would rebel just so there would have been a change. The more vassals I got, the more the game turned into "kill this army of rebels that the vassal can't deal with independently" or "click to end his mastermind plot through diplomacy only to have him start it again next month." At some point I didn't even want to expand anymore, because more vassals brought more plot clicking and more peasant rebels. But then again, there really wasn't anything else left to do than expand.

All in all, a great game and hopefully will grow even greater. Still I can't help noticing that the most memorable moments were those I played as a count or a duke. The endgame wasn't nearly as much fun. Hopefully there will be some improvements on it, so that the obvious answer to someone asking "Gee, king, what are we going to do tonight" is no longer: "The same thing we do every night..."

[Drewcifer]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?930-CK-II-1.05-Development-Diary-3-of-3-April-13th-2012

I'm eager to get back into Crusader Kings after the patch, better crusades, more events, and FINALLY it will show cause of DEATH on characters so I can now plot revenge on the people who kill off my family members!!

[HunterICX]

Excellent stuff indeed. :)

Current game I'm holding whole of Ireland and am moving into England and recently conquered Wales...during those time my counts and some dukes think it's wise to rebel against me resulting them to rot away in my dungeon...record was having 8 of them at the time in my Dungeon.

HunterICX

[Crécy]

Marvellous new features indeed! Especially cause of death gives a nice touch to the role-playing element. Should have been in the release but glad they add it now rather than never.

[soopaman2]

More events and plots!

Can kill more characters, can finally off that weak spymaster who is also a count, where revoking his position can cause a revolt, which would kill you if at war.. Maybe even that pesky baron with a claim upon your death.

Don't the custom ruler DLC come out in a couple days as well?

They are working hard. Harder than a mega-multinational studio does. See why I love these guys?:D

Dammit, been rocking out on some modded Fallout NV, I hate putting a game down halfway, but I am gonna have to, I thinks... Maybe, lemme just splatter one more deathclaw.

[Drewcifer]

Yes the Dynasty Creator is coming out as well... and I think they will release some music DLC or perhaps something else because if you read the first entry he said the patch was going to add lots of FREE stuff to the game the same day of some related DLCs would be out.

[Crécy]

Patch 1.05's magnificent change log:

MAJOR:
- You can now ask to join many types of wars
- Participants in wars now get a contribution score which determines how much prestige and piety they get when the war ends
- Crusades now target entire de jure kingdoms. The Pope declares the war and other rulers can then join the attacking alliance. The one who contributes the most gains the targeted kingdom.
- Streamlined marriage interface allowing matrilineal betrothals
- Loads of new events for regencies, friendships and rivalries
- Plot to revoke the title of a vassal
- The Kill Plot is now more available and targets a wider selection of logical characters
- Portrait clothes are now uncoupled from ethnicity
- Added Causes of Death
- Added some purely naval mercenary units
- Improved military AI
- Armies can now be "attached" to each other, which means they will just follow the lead army
- Duchies can now be assimilated into another de jure kingdom (takes 100 years)
- Now possible to create titular titles at double cost if you hold the scripted capital
- Empires are now allowed to create kingdoms
- You can now only create kingdoms if you are already a king or emperor, or hold more than one duchy titles
- Added the kingdoms of Frisia, Lotharingia, Bavaria, Pomerania, Aquitaine and Brittany
- The kingdoms of Galicia and Navarre are now de jure kingdoms
- The kingdom of Al-Andalus is now called Andalusia and can be created by anyone in the Arabic culture group
- Changed "Ducal Claim" wars to "De Jure Claim". De Jure kings and emperors can now take counties in their de jure realm
- Assassinations are now more expensive depending on the rank of the target
- All factions in civil wars are now hostile to outside attackers
- Cannot end civil wars until the temporarily independent vassal has no holdings occupied by outsiders
- Tribal Invasion CB: Now destroys all duchies and kingdoms in the conquered realm
- Children now always get the same education type as their guardian
- The Holy Order troop size now scales with the moral authority of the church
- Republics now get a special CB to seize coastal provinces
- Republics (count or above tier) now get a tax bonus from all cities in their realm
- Republics (count or above tier) now get an extra tax bonus from all coastal cities in their realm
- Republics (duke or above tier) now get an extra tax bonus from their capital city
- Women and illegitimate bastards no longer get pressed (inheritable) claims on their parents' titles
- You can now press the claims of female courtiers and vassals in wars if the target title does not have Agnatic succession
- AI: Vassals should now try to defeat peasant rebels on their own
- AI: Will no longer raise forces in besieged counties
- AI: Nearby religious brethren will now tend to join defenders in Holy Wars
- AI: Lowered general vassal revolt risk and DoW aggressiveness
- Cut the Religious Assistance CB
- There is now a "Plot" button in the character view, offering a more flexible way of picking plots against characters
- Fixed an issue with weird (often infinite) build times that could occur after reload
- Vassals will no longer hate you for newly acquired Holdings that take you above the demesne limit. You have two months to get rid of them.
- Heavily revised vassal revolt risk calculations
- Made the revolters in independence wars start gaining ticking war score, and do so immediately
- Fixed a crash when switching between tabs in the Plot View

MINOR:
- Embarked armies no longer suffer attrition
- Withdrawing a small enough army from combat no longer leads to a general retreat
- Rebalanced combat a bit - more morale damage, less kills
- Fixed a bug preventing claimants to the Caliphates from ever revolting
- Fixed an issue with succession CB holders not using it because they are currently the heir presumptive
- The opinion effect of gifts now depend on the State Diplomacy of the giver and the greed of the recipient
- Gift recipients who are not your vassals (or below) will appreciate gifts more
- Landless characters now also get an AI personality from traits
- Added more and greater opinion modifiers from characters having the same traits
- The console command "debug fow" is now just "fow" and works in Release builds too
- The invite to plot selection list of characters now excludes those who would never ever join
- Better tooltip for the "not willing to join plot" icon when inviting people to plots
- Glowing borders on selected titles in the Title View
- More likely to see different unit type models on the map
- Added console command "charinfo" to toggle debug information in character portrait tooltip
- AI: Honorable and dishonorable (personality from traits) characters should now respond more plausibly to invitations to murder plots
- AI: Improved councillor appointment
- AI: More careful about trying to pass de jure law changes during wars
- AI: Smarter about revolting during the lieges offensive wars
- AI: A bit more reluctant to accept ending a plot
- AI: Will now want to raise or hire a more overwhelming force
- AI: Smarter about creating and usurping titles
- AI: Smarter about handing out titles
- AI: Will now actually look at the defines MAX_ELECTOR_TITLES_LEGALLY_HELD and MAX_DUCHIES_LEGALLY_HELD when handing out titles
- AI: Checks if mercs are an option when evaluating DoW
- AI: Fixed an issue with piecemeal raising of ships
- AI: Fixed several issues with Mongol Horde DoW logic
- AI: Landed spouses will no longer revolt
- AI: Fixed some bugs with bishop nomination
- AI: Fixed a bug where the AI could ignore some rules when granting titles (could grant contested titles, etc)
- Children born to parents in a matrilineal marriage should now end up in the mother's court
- Fixed a bug with abdication from war in elective monarchies that could result in premature Game Over
- Crown authority in titular kingdoms and empires can now also be lowered by lost civil wars
- Fixed a crash when just about to revoke the title of someone, and that person dies
- Added some more loading tips
- Fixed a bug with the "prisoner" event effect when releasing characters from someone other than their liege
- Unit owners now get a fraction of the prestige and piety gained from battles (and not just commanders)
- Increased the piety and prestige gained from battles a lot
- Characters can now only pick the Amass Wealth ambition once
- Fathers will now like their children a lot
- Fixed a bug with the inheritance of Claims
- Fixed some errors with the tooltips in event 301 ("A Bastard is Born")
- Tweaked the succession situation between Flandres and Hainaut in 1066 to avoid Flandres becoming part of the HRE
- The members of the House of Vermandois are now members of House Karling
- Vassals now only like succession laws in secondary kingdoms if they are de facto below it
- Gavelkind law in secondary kingdoms has no opinion effects unless the ruler has more than one holding there
- Added early kings of England to the history files
- Temple type holders will no longer desire their liege's titles for de jure reasons
- Temple type holders will no longer be upset with their liege for having the wrong government type
- Fixed a bug with protected inheritance not working correctly between two realms, both with protected inheritance
- Nerfed the Pagan warrior cult building by 33%
- The text for the assassination action now mentions the cost
- Can now only repeat the same plot type, not ambitions
- Improved DoW warning texts
- Changed the initial succession laws of the Spanish kingdoms to Gavelkind
- Gave the Victual Brothers their ships back
- Bohemund of Taranto is no longer a bastard
- Fixed a bug where a dead husband of a newly pregnant wife would not count as a husband
- The conduct diplomacy button is now hidden for dead characters
- Fixed some issues with the "elector titles held" penalty in empires
- The Hordes lose the Tribal invasion CB if they go Christian
- Fixed a bug with the 'is_mercenary' trigger
- Gave Pisa some starting buildings in 1066
- Tweaked the Holy Order levy composition
- Adjusted the map so that the Duchy of Tyrol is no longer split in two
- The Kingdom of Byzantium can no longer be created
- Vassal mercs now cost half maintenance
- The Kill Spouse plot decisions are now less likely to actually succeed
- Open succession law (the Muslim default) now makes succession crisis revolts much more likely
- You are now allowed to usurp titles from other vassals within the same realm if you have a claim on the title
- Fixed a bug with the tooltip for the 'has_objective' trigger
- Fixed some issues with some male hair styles being invalidated when they should not be
- Mercenary captains should now wear helmets again
- You no longer get Piety from handing out the same title to the Church multiple times
- You no longer get Piety from handing out duchies and above to clergy
- The Piety from giving a county to the Church is now 50 (down from 100)
- Boosted the arrival strength of the Timurids
- Uncles and aunts are now also valid successors in elective monarchies
- Removed the warning text and special AI acceptance rulers when marrying a member of the _same_ dynasty matrilineally
- Fixed a bug with Fertility set from modifiers
- Holdings under construction should now also correctly benefit from councillor jobs
- Fixed an issue with historical settlements not being cleared entirely correctly on save game load
- Fixed a bug with certain event target trigger tooltips
- Added a tooltip to the "character" trigger
- Corrected some title adjectives
- Fixed a bug with the 'claimed_by' trigger tooltip
- Fixed a mismatch between potential revolters in the alert and in the Intrigue View
- Mercs of the same culture group as you can now always be hired, no matter the distance to your capital
- Lieges of dead characters are now saved and shown
- The decision to repent (getting your excommunication lifted) now gives the correct opinion modifier, making the character immune to a new excommunication for 10 years
- Fixed a bug where successors could be temporarily disinherited when Temple holdings were assigned a new holder
- Fixed multiple issues with the law change plots

FOR MODDERS:
- The line "nudge_allowed=yes" in "settings.txt" will turn on the in-game map positioning editor (there is a button called "Nudge" in the starting screen.)
- The de jure liege of titles can now be changed through events and scripted history ("de_jure_liege")
- You now see all plots in "observe" mode
- Exported MAX_GENERATED_TRAITS_FOR_HISTORICAL to defines (controls the maximum number of random traits that are generated for historical scripted characters)
- Added a 'destroy_landed_title' event effect
- Added a 'give_minor_title' effect
- Added trigger 'holding_type'
- Exported some merc and holy order hire cost factors to defines
- Mercenary companies can now be scripted with a "strength_growth_per_century" value (in landed_titles.txt)
- The Legalism effects on demesne size is exported to "defines.lua"
- Added plot type 'realm_titles'
- Added trigger 'held_title_rating = [num/target]'
- Event modifiers are now read from multiple files
- Cut the non-functional trigger 'num_of_ports'
- The trigger 'monthly_income' now actually works
- Timed opinion modifiers with value 0 are now added, but not listed in tooltips (useful as a kind of flag in events.)
- Added 'creation_effect' to character objectives
- Exported DOW_AGGRESSION_FACTOR and REVOLT_AGGRESSION_FACTOR to defines
- Added event trigger and effect; 'custom_tooltip'

[Hottentot]

Lots of stuff that makes me go "Hooray!" there. We'll see how it works in practice.

[Crécy]

Lots of stuff that makes me go "Hooray!" there. We'll see how it works in practice.

Definitely excellent stuff! However, the ruler dlc seems to be a disappointment:

I played around with it, and it seems to reset character to arbitary nothings; resetting name, dynasty and stats. Great if you want to change *everything* about a character. However, if all you want to do is give yourself a cool Coat of Arms and maybe get rid of that stupid helmet, then you're screwed. Lets take Alexios Komnenos, for example. Say you don't like his hair. So, you go in and change his hair. But now, he's not Alexios Komnenos, he's someone totally different. Okay, so you change his name back, no big. But his stats are all gone. If you try to give him his stats back, then it'll make him older, for balance (nevermind that, if you try to edit a minor, they're automatically aged to 16).

I get why P'dox doesn't want us making supermen and abusing the system. But honestly, I didn't want the DLC to make supermen. I wanted it to make characters and shields that looked the way I wanted, without touching anything else. I can't do that now without sacrificing the rest of the character. Very disappointed.

Thread: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?601513-Ruler-Designer-DLC-Complaint

[soopaman2]

Someone wake me up when Steam releases the DLC.

It seems Steam is either lame, or Paradox is holding back to steer sales to GamersGate.


I do not know who to blame, but this is not the first time Steam/ Paradox jerked people off.

Of course GG is not compatible with steam versions, so I have to wait.

[Drewcifer]

Yeah there is alot of jerking off going on.

By steam and paradox that is. lol.

[Hottentot]

Hmm, I thought I sensed a disturbance in the universe last night. Turns out it's caused by the usual "1,000,000 disillusioned gamers crashing down from their self-induced patch high" phenomenon again. Good thing there is Subsim providing brain shelter. :up:

[Crécy]

It's steam who is having problems getting the DLC live. Susana from Paradox publishing commented on this:
Good morning everyone, we'll look into why the DLC didn't go live but please note that Steam operates on Pacific Standard Time i.e if the DLC didn't go live yesterday it will go live at the earliest when they start their business day provided that there are no issues. Also note this is in no way a confirmation of a launch time (as I've said before we do not have access to that type of information). As soon as we know more we will let you know.

Kind regards
Susana

If you (who live in America) are desperate to get the DLC people have bought it from amazon and activated it on steam which seems to work just fine: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?601653-How-to-Get-Ruler-Designer-DLC-on-Steam

Quite disappointing considering that:
I do see a valid complaint with the age thing. Your ruler starts with all 5's for stats, and every time you raise one, your age goes up by one year. A better education type adds like 5 years, and having a son adds 5 years. To get a decent ruler, he will be 40.

[Rilder]

Not gonna bother with the ruler DLC ever, simply put I don't really to bugger around with making my own ruler when I prefer taking one of the nobody-counts already in the game and making them into a somebody. :O:

The patch itself hasn't been bad though it made a new game I started pretty easy. Started as the Count of Tirol and like 10 years in, a neighboring county started a plot to get our Duke to relinquish the Duchy of Tyrol which ended up getting passed to me. :yawn:

It kinda ruins the whole "Starting From Nothing" idea when the game just throws the stuff your working for into your lap. Its why I couldn't play a Croatian count, because you get Dukified way too early and for no reason. (One of them literally a week after you start the game your king makes you a Duke)

Seriously CK2, if I wanted to start as a Duke, I would of chosen a Duke at the start! :O:

[Hottentot]

That kept happening in the last version as well, and I noticed the same. It's like the game says: "Dude, you don't really want to be a count, you want lots of stuff so you can have [drum filler] even more stuff!"

[HunterICX]

Patch seems to have broken the Multiplayer,

Raptor1 and I tried yesterday but had connecting issues and when I managed to connect to his game I couldn't select a character nor did I saw Raptor1 listed under Players.

seems more people have that issues reading their forums.

HunterICX

[Crécy]

Having problems as well. Like when I quit the game it just freezes and I have to ctrl+alt+del to close it.

[Raptor1]

Apparently they're going to release a hotfix today to fix the various problems the patch introduced.

[Raptor1]

And it's out (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?601466-PATCH-RELEASED-%28v1.05b%29-Checksum-PMKX).


1.05b:

- Fixed a bug with all children getting the exact same education trait
- The mouse wheel now works for scrolling in all windows again
- Autopause on events in full screen mode now works again
- AI: Made smarter about when to join Crusades/Jihads. Reduced "dogpiling".
- MP: Fixed issue where the client was able to change starting date in the lobby, causing all kinds of issues
- MP: Fixed an issue with being able to select dead characters from previous bookmarks
- Fixed a bug with de jure assimilation of duchies when the king himself held counties in it
- Fixed an issue with some plots where plotters did not get what they plotted for
- Fixed an issue with war contribution scores turning negative and strange in huge, drawn-out wars
- AI: Less keen on picking the 'Revoke Vassal Title' plot
- Fixed an issue with the Weaken other Vassal plot where vassals at another level than you could plot against you
- Assimilating duchies are now shown clearly on the map in the De Jure Kingdoms map mode
- Exported WOMEN_INHERIT_PRESSED_CLAIMS and BASTARDS_INHERIT_PRESSED_CLAIMS to defines
- Title creation was possible when at war for independence, resulting in an inconclusive ending and you as "victorious"
- Added some missing French and German translations
- Fixed a bug with the DLC banner not updating correctly in the main screen
- Corrected text color codes in the French translation
- Fixed a bug with the wrong text shown in Crusades/Jihads against heretics

[soopaman2]

Just had a daughter die from "being an inbred freak"
(I know she was my sister, but look at that body!)

:hmmm:

[Drewcifer]

The hotfix worked a treat, I have to say the game is even better now, I like the bit about attaching armies so now I can atleast feel like I'm doing something following around my peers with larger armies within the french nobility.

Excited for new content and I'm really glad they broke the game and fixed it almost instantly thats really staying on top of things and keeping the fan base happy. :rock:

[Hottentot]

Another hotfix (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?601466-PATCH-RELEASED-%28v1.05c%29-Checksum-LNGM&) is out. It's now 1.05c. And so dies another day of life and death drama in the gamers' lives.

[Drewcifer]

I am having even more fun in my games now with the Ruler Creator.

It adds a nice personal touch and its strategic in that you have to careful craft your ruler the more powerful you make him the older he is... counter act with genetic flaws, or faults to lower age, etc.

Had alot of fun with my dwarf hedonist, lustful, genius for about 30 years today... just a quick play I wanted to make the lancaster dwarf from Game of Thrones haha.

[soopaman2]

Just a question, I figured I would try at my home board first I guess.

I am having the game of my life. I never did so good, so fast and have things go to plan as they did.

Some background first.

I start as a custom made Doux of Crete. I gave him bad stats on purpose, he is a celibate, lunatic. I did give genius, as well as gave him a son. Yes risky.

So when little Basileos was 5 I betrothed him to what I estimate now the 6th in line to the ERE throne. Simply for alliance reasons. I had just won independance thanks to the muslims.

I invade Sicily and change my primary title to Sicily. I now hold Crete, Byzantion (fabricated claim) and the entire Sicilian island (Messana from fabrication)

With all this I forget about the betrothal. I look at the sucession and see the current empress is arranged to be betrothed to my son and only heir. They are both 14 years old, and have stats that would make for a true powerhouse heir. My kid is a diplomatic intriguing zealot, while she is a steward type, with great learning and grey emminence. I can ignore the hunchback.

So my query is, will our (future) child inherit the Byzantine empire upon her death?
She is in line, I saw to that, and the betrothal is still on.

Or will they break off independant, like when I tried to install my wife on the throne of Navarra in a previous game? I just get disappointing results sometimes, and want to know if I'm setting myself up for a "rage war" against the Byzantines. (allied with HRE, I can crush them)

(edit: I always wanted to "earn the emperor title" and not just start as one. I just know I screwed it up somehow, as I always do)

[soopaman2]

Sorry for double post, but is there an antipope like mechanism for Orthodoxes?

I hold Hagia Sophia, who all the eccumenicals seem to have a hard on for, would putting a bishop there, give me the same effect as installing an antipope in Rome.

I am getting sick of the ERE excommunication chaining me.

Excommunicate, buy myself back in with my massive piety from constant holy wars. Rinserepeat every in game week. It gets old.

If it wasn't for me Orthodox moral authority would not be as high as it is, I feel robbed.

(this is not so much a problem now, I offed the emperor, and had 10 people on the plot, so it's not like he was seen as a nice man.I just want to know if anyone found a way around my experience.)

Way late edit: My son left for her court even thought the marriage is not matrilineal (sp?)

He is still my heir, and has an emperor title. Dad is a Doux, my boy is an emperor. I am so proud!
They just had a child whom they named after me. Caligula. He is heir to my sons claims, and the ERE empire. My only worry is he (my boy) left my court. I hope my dynasty will still stand, My ruler is celibate, and cannot have kids.)

[Drewcifer]

If you die you play your son, which is currently saying 'yes dear' to his powerful wife. However, when you and your son die, you play the grandson who is going to be the ruler of everything his parents had.

[soopaman2]

I feel dumb not looking for the blood drop next to Caligula II.

I love it when a plan comes together.
-Hannibal Smith-

I guess the real fun starts when I inherit 50 more vassals.:D

[soopaman2]

....make that 97 more vassals

Only one revolted but was smooshed. I released her from prison, she revolted again. Then I released her. (I am finding pacification is sometimes the better choice, with so many vassals)

Im drawing 5k levy out of Byzantion alone, why?

Alot of intra-vassal fighting.
I, in a sick way enjoy watching my vassals fight one another, after all I still hold the main titles. And if they are fighting each other, they are not focusing on me. Most people try to hamper such activity, yet I have found it more useful to encourage it with limited crown laws.

Sorry if I am turning this thread into my personal AAR.
I can always start my own thread (or shut up) if the community sees fit.

Map shots to follow. I just want to reach my pinnacle, as I still got about 5 counties to press claims on.

On a side note, my celibate dynasty starter, decided to have 2 kids with his wife at 41, and 45 years old. Little Nero, and little Alexia. I thought women were done after 30?

I guess he found some viagra, and she found a fertility expert?

[Drewcifer]

I believe there is a table/chart over at the Paradox forum couple guys made a strategy guide in the FAQ section. The game is coded so that women become infertile on their 46 birthday.

I'm about to start a fresh game. The game I had going for awhile The count of Guinne the little tip of land up by the straights. Anyways Went from there to Duke of Flanders, to King of France and well the Aquatine and Tolhouse would have none of it they started a chain reaction independence war oddly enough after they HELPED me get the crown in the first place. What followed was the bloodiest battle in all of French history as it ended the kingdom. England came down as King Fredrick the Fat devoured nearly everything but flanders which I held with doom stacks of Mercs it was sketchy at best but then the Romans got in on it and well then the damn infidels started up from the south and France was torn to shreds. My entire dynasty was slaughtered making a last stand in Gent.

[soopaman2]

Live and learn eh.
Gavelkind stinks.

My 2 late kids from my grandfather stinks. Bulgaria wasn't even in our hands, when your little stinking behinds were born! Yet the little 3 year old turd Caracalla ran away with it.

The electors who all love me, but won't vote my laws in stinks. Yeah. This is what I get for trying to be benevolent, yet most my vassals still labeled me a tyrant (-10)

Someone cried about me holding a title they wanted, I always gave it. I even gave back Hagia Sophia to the Eccumenical jerk who kept Baaaaaawing over it.

I want to put this particular save game down for now. My new knowledge will help me in my reconquista game I always wanted to do.

I always wanted to replicate a 16th century Spain a few hundred years earlier (yeah Italy, that means you)

On a side note, what is with this weird CB the Italians like pressing on one another? Something about coastal provinces, it just seems silly and slightly OP.

And why does Genoa blob out now if left alone (and even if not)?


HRE did nothing to stop them from eating the duchess of Toscana.

[Drewcifer]

wow...

started a new game tonight as Count Bethune of Artosis. Spent a few hours setting myself up building up my county and waiting on a fabricated claim to start expanding. Suddenly my duke starts an independence war, my count decides to go heretic (no option for me to stop it) and then King of England William the damn bastard decides to claim my county.

Right like my 100 men can stop his 5000... so needless to say I was very upset I had spent all that time getting my game set up just to get SHAFTED that bad. :damn:

[soopaman2]

wow...

started a new game tonight as Count Bethune of Artosis. Spent a few hours setting myself up building up my county and waiting on a fabricated claim to start expanding. Suddenly my duke starts an independence war, my count decides to go heretic (no option for me to stop it) and then King of England William the damn bastard decides to claim my county.

Right like my 100 men can stop his 5000... so needless to say I was very upset I had spent all that time getting my game set up just to get SHAFTED that bad. :damn:

Sorry for this.:salute:

:haha::har::O:

I had that happen, alot.

The game is dynamic, and will never play out the same way twice. It just sucks getting crushed from the door, especially considering how hard we work to "set up" our dynasties at start.

I bet if you try it again with the same decisions and courses of action you may be able to work it.

I am about to do a "Reconquista" as a low count in Galicia.
Stinking Moors. (sorry to all the modern moors:D)

[Drewcifer]

Honestly this is one of my all time favorite games though so I don't mind getting rick rolled like that because it is a completely dynamic thing.

Obviously William the Bastard didn't like me, and who was I to stand in his way.

It would be different if the game was just unfair for the sake of unfair but that isn't the case the game is just simply very much alive and all about action and reaction and really one of the most addictive games I've ever played. Not sure I will ever get sick of it at this point.

[soopaman2]

I am on vacation and I did finish that Byzantine game.
(pre patch, kingdom creep into empire woulda been darn useful 2 weeks ago)

I lasted 5 generations with me losing and regaining the Kingdoms of Sicily, Italy, Africa, Aragon, Castille, Hungary, and Croatia.
(I was ERE emperor) Earned, not born into.


How did I die?

A sloppy assassination attempt went wrong, the retaliation killed me, and split my empire up. I messed up.

I do not reload (house rules), so I was screwed.:D

[Drewcifer]

Worthy of being noted I think..

http://kotaku.com/5913709/there-is-an-awesome-game-of-thrones-video-game-you-can-play-it-right-now

[Rilder]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?610568-1.06-Information-amp-First-Expansion

Playable Muslims ExpansionDLC coming as well as a bunch of features for the base game.

[Drewcifer]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?610568-1.06-Information-amp-First-Expansion

Playable Muslims ExpansionDLC coming as well as a bunch of features for the base game.

Yes not sure how I completely missed out on that one. At this point I'm literally just willing to THROW ALL MY MONEY at paradox. This is probably the best game I have ever played, it just scratches that itch that total war fell short on, and civ just wasn't specific enough, etc, etc.

This game is so well polished and they have done such a good job I have already vowed to buy every single dlc they make just to support them and this game.

[Drewcifer]

50% off on Steam right now for anybody that has been wanting to pick this game up.

I can't recommend this game enough, honestly its just an absolute masterpiece.

[Raptor1]

50% off on Steam right now for anybody that has been wanting to pick this game up.

I can't recommend this game enough, honestly its just an absolute masterpiece.

It's the same on GamersGate, which is usually a better place to get Paradox games in general.

[Rilder]

50% off on Steam right now for anybody that has been wanting to pick this game up.

I can't recommend this game enough, honestly its just an absolute masterpiece.

Well honestly, they should of nabbed it while the Amazon Plentiful paradox package was still going, could of gotten it and 4 other Paradox games for even less then CK2 is by itself on steam right now. ;)

[Biggles]

Now it's 75% off! :doh:

[Drewcifer]

Yep now its 75% along with all its DLC. Haha.. its hard to keep track with steam. Also I agree Rilder I was just posting the sale so people knew, they might have missed the amazon sale.

[Valantine]

Picked it up off steam at 75% off - Been interested in it for a while so took the chance at a tenner I'm not going to complain!
Only thing I need to do is figure out EXACTLY how to play the damn thig: seem to be pretty much sitting around blindly marrying off my underlings right now! - even that mad old cow finally got an equally batsh*t chap to marry! :har:
V

[Oberon]

Typical, and I get it from Gamersgate at 50% the day before! :haha:

Still, got A House Divided as well, so that's always good. :yep:

[Oberon]

Heh, my random Welsh Duke gets the trait of 'Impaler', two days later his wife falls pregnant.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/small/000/002/145/startrek.jpg

[emaszs]

Love the game, however I can only hope that one day I'll get my head around the succession laws ^^

[Crécy]

So Sword of Islam DLC is out. Who has tried it? Confess!

[Hottentot]

Bought it on day 1, but haven't really had time to play around with it yet. Seems nice so far, though. The Muslims feel suitably different from Christians but not over the top. Definitely more than just cosmetic changes and a huge new area to play around (well, to start from, really, but it still turns the tables around well enough for me.) So I'm so far thinking it's worth the 10 drops of my heart blood.


In addition I'm thinking this...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Izno01.gif
Combined with my favorite three letter abbreviation...

[Hottentot]

Some more experiences from playing the muslim rulers. Still mostly just impressions, but I've had now a little more time to fiddle with them...

The politics is different from Christians. The muslims can have up to four wives, so there is no point in trying to secure your inheritance by murdering heirs. On the other hand, lots of wives means lots of potential alliances. That's what I'm thinking anyway. Can't say for sure because, as always, I have started from the lowest tier vassal ruler and every time I try to marry someone who is someone I get the good old "desires better alliance" card thrown on my face.

The life is far more violent. If someone isn't plotting to kill my heirs, then someone is plotting to kill me. I'd love to do this as well, but I'm honestly a little on the fence with the new murder plot mechanic introduced in 1.06 patch. I love it as an idea, but it seems to take quite a long time to get anyone dead. Based on forums and personal experience so far. I wouldn't mind this, if they hadn't also raised the assassination costs into ludicrous sums: if I get 1 gold from my single province per month, I'm not going to wait 200 months (16.6 years!) to have a 10 % chance of murdering someone. I liked it more in 1.05 when it wasn't too cheap anymore, but still affordable.

Due to this, the game has become a little too much "might is right" for my tastes, whereas before it was more about intrigue for me as a small fish. I know some players think fabricating claims and hiring mercenaries is the only way to play the game (indeed, the very point of the game, it some times seems), but I don't like playing that way. How does this relate to the muslims? In the way that for muslims might is indeed right. Not only do they of course get holy wars against Christians, Paradox has also given them the "conquest" Casus Belli, which basically means you can invade your neighbor (muslim or not) just because you feel like it. I don't know how historical this is, but it's definitely not something that makes the game better in my opinion. It's turning CK into yet another "paint the map with your color" game, whereas before just getting one county next to you was a challenge you had to work for.

The decadence mechanic is a nice addition to the muslims, but the AI is pretty horrible with handling it so far. For player it's relatively easy to keep down, bar some events that inevitably give it to you with no way to avoid them. Even on low levels it gives some penalties, but on the other hand very low levels give bonuses. In short, it's something that has an effect on the game and therefore nice.

The muslim events so far have been a little disappointing. They are basically the same as the Christian events, only with different texts. There are some muslim specific events too I have so far encountered, but not many of them. My biggest gripe regarding this, however, are the vices. When I got the "proud" trait and hovered over it, it gave me exactly the same description as it does to the Christians: latin name and how the Church shuns it. I'm a muslim, why would I care about what the infidels think or how they call it in their silly languages?! This was a huge immersion breaker, as petty as it may sound, even if the vice itself was still a vice for a muslim.

So in short, it's still CK 2, but the experience is suitably different. I think I still slightly prefer Christian rulers for their more complex politics and backstabbing opportunities, but when I feel like just bashing something and painting the map, muslims are a good choice. I'm sure Paradox will still give them some depth in the future, and so far things look promising enough.

[Drewcifer]

I cannot believe how good this game is. I tend to get burned out on civ, or TW games after awhile its just the same motions over and over. Really all games are, and CK2 is no different.... BUT the story always changes, the start point might change, and the end point is ALWAYS different.

Infact attempting to recreate something you did in one game is extremely hard to do in a second game. The character interactions, are great. The stories of betrayal and secret alliances are brillant. This is by far my favorite game. Yeah there is no big movie actions scenes so you have to settle for a game of risk playing out the story board of some epic tale.

If you haven't tried it yet you must, and if you can't get into it please explain just what it is that keeps you from enjoying what is very close to being one of those games worthy of a perfect score in my book.

[Egan]

If you haven't tried it yet you must, and if you can't get into it please explain just what it is that keeps you from enjoying what is very close to being one of those games worthy of a perfect score in my book.

Well, I've had it for a couple of weeks now, but only got a chance to have a game the other night for the first time. I'm enjoying it very much but I don't even have the slightest clue what I am doing. Are their any good tutorials or guides out there? The manual is, as usual, not very great, and I'd love to get a much better handle on the economy, pressing claims and plots.

[Crécy]

Are their any good tutorials or guides out there? The manual is, as usual, not very great, and I'd love to get a much better handle on the economy, pressing claims and plots.

Paradoxplaza's Meneth has wrote a good in-depth guide to Crusader Kings II (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?589469-GUIDE-In-depth-Guide-to-CKII). However, it seems to dive a bit into mechanics and numbers 'under the hood', which I don't like as I don't want to know algorithms for everything or calculate optimal moves.

There's also a Crusader Kings II Wiki (http://ckiiwiki.com/Crusader_Kings_II_Wiki) which also offers a few useful guides. I on the other hand suggest you learn only the basics to play the game and then just experiment yourself. At least for me that method has been most fun. It amazes me how unbelievable things can actually happen in the game. Should actually write those things down :hmmm:.

In paradoxplaza there are tutorial AARs and gameplay AARs as well which will most likely help to understand the game better. Not forgetting video tutorials (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fHOkFDHaEC8#!).

[Egan]

Paradoxplaza's Meneth has wrote a good in-depth guide to Crusader Kings II (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?589469-GUIDE-In-depth-Guide-to-CKII). However, it seems to dive a bit into mechanics and numbers 'under the hood', which I don't like as I don't want to know algorithms for everything or calculate optimal moves.

There's also a Crusader Kings II Wiki (http://ckiiwiki.com/Crusader_Kings_II_Wiki) which also offers a few useful guides. I on the other hand suggest you learn only the basics to play the game and then just experiment yourself. At least for me that method has been most fun. It amazes me how unbelievable things can actually happen in the game. Should actually write those things down :hmmm:.

In paradoxplaza there are tutorial AARs and gameplay AARs as well which will most likely help to understand the game better. Not forgetting video tutorials (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fHOkFDHaEC8#!).

Cheers for that. The wiki is quite useful.

Yeah, I've mostly been diving in and just seeing what happens. Turns out Scottish history is even more bloody than reality. I'm falling for this game, I think it's my favourite Paradox release yet. It almost - almost - makes up for Rome..:)

One question. I'm having trouble understanding changing Laws. I'm trying to change my Crown authority. When I decide to change it, it won't actually come into effect until all my Vassals agree to it? Is that right? How do I go about getting them to accept it? Just being nice to them and boosting my standing or is there something else I'm missing?

[Hottentot]

One question. I'm having trouble understanding changing Laws. I'm trying to change my Crown authority. When I decide to change it, it won't actually come into effect until all my Vassals agree to it? Is that right? How do I go about getting them to accept it? Just being nice to them and boosting my standing or is there something else I'm missing?

Correct. They get to vote, just like you do as a vassal. However, unlike you, the vassals almost unanimously vote yes instead of ignoring the vote. It just takes some time. I don't know if boosting relations help, or more precisely, has any effect. I mean, everytime the HRE emperor decides to say: "Hey guys, I'm going to make this empire a happy dictatorship where I can do pretty much whatever I want and you can choke on it", even the vassals who hate him seem to be all: "Yay! Tazer time!!" :doh:

[Hottentot]

Well, that was something. From a vassal count of Gotland to king of Sweden in one generation. And the best part is that I did practically nothing for it.

The king made me a duke fairly early. Then he got generous and handed me another duchy, because I had grabbed a county in its de jure area. After a few opportunistic land grabs of the counties in my duchies' de jure area I owned practically half of Sweden. One county I still wanted was owned by the king. And then he gave it to me too.

I have no idea what the AI was thinking, but I thanked my generous liege by plotting to acquire the whole kingdom for myself. When I went knocking on his door, backed up by the king of Norway and one other remaining duke of Sweden, he gave up his title without a fight.

I'm so confused that I don't even know what to do next. Probably try to avoid being swatted by Norway, to which the idiot former king of Sweden somehow managed to lose the Northern half of the kingdom. I'm a king, yet my demesne is just a little bigger than Denmark thanks to him. On the other hand, the emperor of the HRE is my ally through marriage, so that might help.

[Egan]

Well, I'm enjoying it - occasional irritation and my ongoing dislike of the whack-a-mole nature of Paradox's combat model aside - and I've certainly had fun with the cruel nature of the CK2 world.

My first real problem was my heir. He came to power with two traits: Imbecile and brave. Luckily this drooling lummox was only on the throne for a short time before the first crusade was called, so of he went with his brave men. Needless to say he died about 5 seconds after arriving in Outremer. I think the idiot charged an entire Islamic Deathstar on his own. His heir came to power and almost immediately triggered a huge bunch of wars that took me years to polish off. Thank the lord I seem to have got a pile of money at just the right time, it meant I could rehire another merc company and grind out a win on the battlefield. I'm not sure where the money come from. My mother (the former queen) died. Did she leave me money, by any chance? I certainly never got it from taking counties - there were so many bad guys I spent all my time trying to eliminate them with no chance to anything else.

One last thing, is the ruler designer DLC any good?

[Crécy]

Have to share one of the funniest and gruesomest chain of events I've yet seen in Crusader Kings II.

Me and my friend were playing as finnish lords, trying to unite Finland. At one point my high chief died at an early age and my heir (age around 10 and a girl) succeeded. My chief diviner (who hated me) became a regent. A few months later my chief diviner sent me, to be high chief, to clean castle's roof from bird waste, in hope of me falling and dying. Luckily, I survived the task. A week or two later my lovely regent sent me to woods with escorts which soon vanished, leaving me alone in the woods. Miraculously I managed to find my way home. This time I refused to wait and see how my regent would eventually kill me. However, I couldn't capture the man as he controlled everything. So I asked my friend to ask my regent to depart to his court. And he departed and I sighed in relief.

A few weeks later the former regent tried to kill my friend (and when I speak of my friend, I mean his character). Again, failing. My friend imprisoned the man immediately. We both sighed in relief as we knew the old man wouldn't trouble us no more... Until that bastard managed to somehow, from the dungeons, send an assassin after my friend. Luckily the assassin failed. Outraged, my friend banished the maniac killer, which I think was too merciful considering that he tried to kill our characters twice. Have to give the man some credit though, I don't believe there are many who manage to find a way to hire an assassin while rotting in the dungeons.

So far that has been the most awesome series of events I've seen in CKII. And it all happened in multiplayer.

[HunterICX]

Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome Expansion Announced!http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?1056-Crusader-Kings-II-Legacy-of-Rome-Expansion-Announced

Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome Main features:


New Faction System: Join a royal faction and use your allies in the party to enhance your strength and tear down rivals
Raise Standing Armies: You will now be able to use retinues to have standing armies in your domain: the size of which is determined by technology
Experience Factional Revolts: No more easily defeated rebellions. Disgruntled vassals will now band together in revolt against your rule through their faction
Appoint Orthodox Patriarchs: Orthodox kingdoms and empires can now control their own heads of religion and their powers, instead of being dependent on the patriarch of Constantinople
Streamlined Mobilization: You will always raise a single, larger levy from your direct vassal; no need to worry about the opinions of the lower vassals
Leader Focus on Combat: Appoint your generals wisely, their traits and skills are now of vital importance on the field of battle. More commander traits are now added to increase the importance of your choice of military leaders
Byzantium Comes Alive: New sets of decisions and events specifically designed with the Byzantine Empire in mind
Improve your ruler: You can now actively strive to improve your skills or traits through the new Self-Improvement Ambitions

btw nice pair of eyes you have there Nikephoros

HunterICX

[Crécy]

btw nice pair of eyes you have there Nikephoros


:o

The Others are here!

But as usual I will buy the DLC.

[Oberon]

http://inlinethumb18.webshots.com/5841/1211699679052855490S500x500Q85.jpg

KATAPHRAKTOI

[Crécy]

Legacy of Rome (http://www.gamersgate.com/DLC-CK2LOR/crusader-kings-ii-legacy-of-rome) released

[HunterICX]

Ehm.....:doh:

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/press/2012/10/crusader-kings-ii-sunset-invasion-announced

HunterICX

[Spike88]

Ehm.....:doh:

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/press/2012/10/crusader-kings-ii-sunset-invasion-announced

HunterICX

But.... Why?

[Arclight]

In the latest DLC for the critically-acclaimed strategy/RPG Crusader Kings II, Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studios pose the question – what would have happened if the Aztecs invaded 13th Century Europe?

They would have all died to smallpox and typhus.

[Oberon]

I've seen this one before:

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070118215016/mst3k/images/5/5a/0102.jpg

[Hottentot]

They have a forum full of threads filled with good ideas for DLCs and they go with that?

Please tell me this is a joke.

[Drewcifer]

I agree my stomach rolled when I seen this. Because of how great the base game was I vowed to buy all DLC to support them... but now I'm going to have to amend that vow to "I'll buy all RELEVANT DLC"

[Crécy]

After three days, I finally realized that I posted this in the wrong thread...

Crusader Kings II Patch 1.08 released. (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?646751-Crusader-Kings-II-1.08-PATCH-RELEASED-Checksum-JQDK-NOT-for-problem-reports!&)

Patch 1.08 is now live on Steam and GamersGate!

The GamersGate version is up now, though it might take a while for it to show in the launcher.

(GamersGate Mac version)

Old save games should be completely compatible.

CHECKSUM: JQDK

2012-11-15: v1.08
-----------------------

MAJOR:
- Added Nahua culture and Aztec religion

MINOR:
- Retinues no longer get free leaders
- Liege levies raised via the province view are now raised in the selected province
- You can now forbid your council from leading armies
- Optimized succession calculation, which could cause massive slowdowns in big dynasties with many landed members
- Intrigue plots vs barons or their courtiers can now include their liege's courtiers and other vassals
- Fixed Scottish Schiltron building giving 10x defensive bonus to pikes
- Fixed Dutch cultural retinue lacking pikes
- Fixed an issue with AI strength calculations the first month after loading a game
- A bit more randomness in the size of the rebel reinforcements in civil wars
- The Pope now receives even less war contribution score in Crusades
- Fixed a crash with a null war list in Province View and Diplomacy View
- Mercenary regiments and Holy Orders will now automatically get a new leader when the old one dies
- Less likely that the captain of a merc regiment gets reassigned to lead something else
- Kingdoms no longer assimilate out of de jure empires that have no holder
- Fixed a bug with not being able to move capital back to your title's preferred capital
- The Imperial Reconquest CB now only works for the restored Roman Empire
- The Imperial Reconquest CB no longer clears out all rulers under the title
- Disbanding multiple selected units will never disband retinues if there are non-retinues in any selected unit
- Liege levies will now disband if their owner is at war with the owner of the unit
- Retinues no longer reinforce if their owner has no money
- Diplo AI: Imprisoned vassals or below will always accept a demand for religious conversion, and go free from prison
- AI: Much better at assigning flank commanders for important armies
- AI: Less likely to go overboard with Crown Authority
- AI: Not interested in Lower CA plots in irrelevant kingdoms/empires
- AI: Fixed a bug with it not dismissing liege levies when done with them
- Army AI: Fixed a bug with invasions not happening when they should
- Ledger page with independent rulers now shows troops including retinues
- Shift or Ctrl clicking buttons in Ruler Designer coat of arms designer now multiplies the frame change by 5 or 10
- Fixed bug where byzantine unit pack was replacing all eastern europeans
- Raising troops via raise all or raise on province will now merge units
- Now allowed to ask to join tribal invasion wars
- Fixed bugged altaic culture building modifier
- Fixed the history of c_sodermanland
- Fixed consistency issue with German characters name Philipp
- Fixed faulty employment date for Robrecht van Gent
- Fixed broken Ua Conchobair dynasty
- Province of Bira no longer stays Orthodox for the entire game
- Fixed bug where imprisoned underage rulers could kill their regents
- Gave The Two Saltuks from Erzurum their correct names
- Corrections to Phillip IV of France and many related characters
- Sigrid Ylving no longer has the wrong mother
- Fixed the deathdate of King Charles IV of France
- Added missing Ecumenical Patriarchs
- Fixed a bug where courtiers of landless characters would be listed in a weird location
- Fixes and additions to various Frankish and Occitan dynasties
- Fixes and additions to the Hunfirding dynasty
- Missing marriages, mothers, children of Valdemar II and Erik V of Denmark added
- Fixed a rare crash in 'on_siege_over'
- AI: The independence faction does not present an ultimatum until it has at least 33% of the liege's strength
- AI: De jure vassals of your culture and religion, except kings, will not start or join independence factions
- Reduced the chance of massive rebel reinforcements for the Independence faction
- Diplo AI: Mongols and Aztecs will no longer revoke titles off human players just for having the wrong religion or culture
- Armenian, Georgian and Alan cultures updated with new names, name linkings and patronymics
- Fixes to the County of Melgueil
- Ingeborg Magnusdotter now has the correct gender
- Sartag Khan now converts to Nestorianism instead of Orthodoxy
- Corrections to the religion of several Zirid characters
- A few Catalan name fixes
- Changes and additions to the Godwin dynasty
- Fixed a bug with Primogeniture when tracing back through the current holder's mother
- Fixed a very rare crash with Holdings with no holder
- Fixed an issue with inheritance by landless characters when there was no de jure vassal title they could take off the previous holder
- Diplo AI: Much more careful about imprisonments
- Imprisoning characters no longer affects their position in the line of succession
- Fixed a bug with the event pictures on Mac and Linux
- Added blinded trait to historically blind characters in the database
- Added missing space to Armenian dynasty prefix and Irish male patronym
- Byzantine, Armenian and Georgian character fixes and additions
- Fixed wrong liege for Duchy of Champagne and County of Gevaudan at certain dates
- Welsh/Hiberno-Norse Dublin character fixes and additions
- New dynasty for the Kurdish Shaddadids, extended Mirdasid pedigree
- On player agreement, the game now sends information to the Paradox backend when you start a game, containing the names of the DLCs and Mods you run (can be toggled with "dont_track_data = [yes/no]" in settings.txt)
- AI: The leader of a claimant faction will no longer leave the faction in an elective realm where the claimant is currently the heir
- AI: Fixed a slight bug where current heirs would not back claimant factions for themselves
- Spymaster Scheme job has been overhauled and simplified
- AI: Fixed an issue with the number of available galleys check
- Fixed an issue with part of the de jure drift mechanic not being cleared on resign

FOR MODDERS:
- The criterion for determining who can lead troops is now determined by the allow trigger for 'job_marshal' (so women can now be modded to lead armies)
- Added trigger 'is_adult'
- Added trigger 'is_marriage_adult'

[Oberon]

1.09


MAJOR:
- Merchant Republic gameplay (Duke or higher tier Republics with a coastal capital)
- Added a 'Grant Independence' diplomatic interaction
- Titles can now automatically change name depending on the culture of their top liege
- The Reign length opinion modifiers are now dependent on how long a character has been the liege of someone, not how long the primary title has been held
- Added 1241 Bookmark - "The Mongols"
- Save file transfer now works on Mac
- Reduced max demesne size from ruler tier, especially for Dukes
- Reduced the effect of Stewardship on max demesne size (now 15%, down from 25%.)
- Added a max demesne size bonus (+1) for dukes with more than one duchy
- Increased the Prestige effects of a rank difference in marriages by a factor of 5
- All merc regiments now grow in max size over time
- Added more mercenary bands: Finns, Lapps, Abyssinians, Nubians, Lithuanians, Scots, Irish and Alans
- Added Ultimogeniture succession law
- Added Tanistry succession law

MINOR:
- Fixed a bug with religions that have become or stopped being heresies not being correctly reset on reload
- Sunset Invasion: Slightly increased the arrival strength of the Aztecs
- Increased the strength of the Timurids
- Added a hidden event that clears diplomatic immunity from faction members if the faction leader dies while waiting for the liege response to an ultimatum
- When forming the Roman Empire, de jure assimilation into the Byzantine Empire is now carried over
- Fixed a bug allowing you to declare excommunication wars on lieges above your immediate liege (the war would then invalidate)
- AI: Will not attach units to allied units unless they are in the war target area
- Fixed a bug where a king who was also emperor lost the empire title in a civil war, but retained all dukes as vassals under the kingdom
- Fixed a crash in the province view
- Retinues no longer cost maintenance when you are out of money ( since they do not reinforce when you are out of money )
- Fixed a rare crash that could occur when a character was exiled from the last existing republic
- Fixed a bug with de jure withdrawal out of empires where the counter would reset and nothing would happen
- AI: Infinitesimal chance that the AI will fold to faction demands from tiny factions
- Fixed some bugs with the outcomes of the Imperial Reconquest CB
- Fixed a bug with characters not always returning correctly from foreign courts
- Fixed a CTD with the GamersGate in-game store API if there was a network error
- Forbidding councillors from leading armies is now saved
- Forbidding councillors from leading armies will no longer lead to an out of sync in multiplayer
- Fixed issue where a settlement could be awarded to an enemy after a siege was won
- Character screen no longer moves to front when it updates its data
- When creating a new unit one subunit will automatically transfer over if the selected unit has at least two
- Added a message for when someone takes over as a faction leader
- Prerequisite building missing text in building tooltip is now localized
- Fixed issue where character browser was showing some rulers when set to "all characters" and "no rulers"
- AI: Fixed a somewhat borked odds calculation vs attached units
- Army AI: Fixed an indecision issue - will be more determined to hunt down certain armies
- Army AI: Fixed a bug with splinter armies putting the whole agent into retreat mode
- Army AI: Fixed a rare collection livelock issue if a splinter army was besieging a holding
- Army AI: Fixed a glitch with the potential target province calculation due to moving enemy units
- Claimant Factions are no longer valid for non-elective titles if the claimant has no claim
- Fixed a confusing "any demesne title" trigger tooltip
- Removed the kingdom of Pommerania from the de jure HRE
- Liege levy maintenance cost is now shared with sub vassals
- The old liege now only gets weak claims on members of successful independence factions
- Fixed a rare crash in AI flank leader unit assignment
- Fixed an issue that could allow vassals of vassals to launch independence faction wars
- Independence faction wars are now invalidated if the pre-war liege becomes vassalized himself
- Fixed a bug where the successor of an Ecumenical Patriarch (or a vassal Pope) could change religion to the liege's.
- Vassals of vassals can no longer start claimant factions for claimants in another realm
- You now correctly gain Piety for granting bishoprics to courtiers
- Muslim rulers no longer get Piety for creating a random mosque holder
- Hamburg and Celle now have ports
- Province of Alexandria adjusted to include the site of the actual city
- Gender corrections to certain characters
- Added missing parents for Roupen I of Armenia Minor
- Fixed broken House Oitir dynasty
- Fixed several Mongol characters having the wrong religion
- Constantine de Hauteville is no longer female
- Gytha Thorkelsdottir now has the correct deathdate
- Louis d'Evreux now has the correct mother
- Fixes to Václav II and descendants
- William 'Adelin' now has the correct deathdate
- Miscellaneous database corrections to the de Luxembourg dynasty
- Miscellaneous database corrections for the Normans and the 1st Earl of Chester
- Fixed the birthdate of Saint Louis IX of France and his brother Robert of Artois
- Switched culture for two characters from Irish to Scottish
- Fixes to Danish and Norwegian bastards
- Added the Hvide Bishops of Roskilde
- The culture of Khwarizm now changes to Turkish at the correct date
- Updated the Jarls of Västergötland
- Fixed various issues with wrong or missing mothers for Frankish characters
- Fixed the lineage of Erik III of Denmark
- Added new Maghreb Wikipedia links
- Tweaked deathdate of Mubashir, Duke of Mallorca, and made him eunuch
- Fixed the spelling of the de Cuiseaux dynasty
- Corrections to the Af Sverker family
- Fixes to the ruler history of the Perigord and La Marche counties
- The Pirate King Kyrillos is now correctly imprisoned when captured through event
- Added dynasty and descendants to Umar ibn Khattab
- Fleshed out the the Rassid dynasty of Yemen
- Additions to the Banu 'Amir dynasty and its descendants
- Various changes and additions to the Hammudid dynasty
- Added the Mayzadids of Hillah
- Updated the Scottish name list
- Minor changes and additions to the Italian name list
- The Umayyad and Hashimid now have Muslim-style Coats of Arms
- Added some missing Dukes of Brittany
- Namechanges for several Scottish characters
- Constantinople is now protected by the Theodosian Walls
- Some corrections to Swedish kings and their families
- Links for Hungarian names added
- Changes to the Baltic pagan setup
- Corrections to Birger Jarl's family line
- All Armenian characters are now Miaphysite
- Added descriptive texts of all buildings
- Fixed issue with certain buildings referring to an obsolete Seljuk title
- Updated the credits
- Basra and Tigris now have the correct ruler in 1152
- Blocked claimant factions for vassals of vassals under Medium or higher crown authority
- Blocked most factions for vassals of vassals under Medium crown authority in addition to High and Absolute
- Fixed a problem with the limit of children for heirs
- AI: Fixed a bug with it not dismissing liege levies when done with them
- The pre-spawned 1066 conquest armies in England now suffer normal attrition
- Event spawned civil war armies now suffer normal attrition
- Made the bastard birth event (450) more common
- If married, women now fool their husbands about the parentage of children born from the bastard birth event (450)
- Fixed a bug with kingdom adjudication and barony tier titles under lieges with split allegiances
- Lowered the inheritance chance a bit for most congenital traits
- Fixed some glitches with the Mongol conversion events
- There is now a chance that the Ilkhanate will convert to Nestorianism
- There is now a small chance that the Golden Horde will convert to Nestorianism
- AI: Tweaked the effect of the Content trait on the creation and joining of Claimant factions
- AI: A bit smarter about launching claimant ultimatums
- Diplomacy View: Fixed a minor prestige tooltip issue when marrying lowborn characters
- AI: Vassals of a conqueror's title should not support claimants of another culture
- DoW AI: Now more aware of the possibility of mercs and the military value of Gold
- AI: More keen on using mercs if even slightly outnumbered
- AI: Very rich states are now more likely to use multiple merc regiments if needed
- Renamed the merc fleets after sea zones
- Added a hidden event to disband William's special invasion fleet
- AI: Lords and their heirs always answer each other's call to wars
- AI: Fixed a bug that could prevent the passing of laws
- AI: Smarter about trying to institute Agnatic-Cognatic law
- Retinues are now correctly passed on to the _player_ successor, not the primary title successor
- Fixed a crash bug in the Diplo and Province views with character with a null list of enemies
- Fixed a bug where characters inherited debts
- Fixed a minor bug in the effect 'vassalize_or_take_under_title' that would allow vassalization of unvassalizable titles like the Hashashin
- The religious CB now vassalizes lords of your own religion in the target Duchy
- AI: Fixed an issue where lords would marry off their councillors matrilineally to lowborn courtiers
- Fixed a bug with succession law opinions of children not of their parent's dynasty
- Optimized the line of succession calculation code
- AI: Fixed some bugs with elective successor choices
- Fixed (hopefully) a gross bankruptcy bug with the 'transfer_scaled_wealth' effect
- AI: External powers now more aggressive against civil war revolters
- Various code speed optimizations
- Fixed another bug with dead character in the Allies list
- AI: Husband and Wife always answer each other's calls to war
- Reversed the order of rulers in the Title History View (latest now on top)
- Invasion AI: Fixed a bug where fleets were afraid of loaded armies on enemy fleets
- Army AI: Fixed a brain death issue when under invasion by a Mercenary company whose unit was destroyed
- Army AI: Fixed an issue where it would not raise its own demesne ships
- AI: Will tend to hand out the latest acquired baronies rather than the oldest
- The Traitor opinion is now inherited by ruler successors
- Calling someone to war now makes them dislike you by the same amount you will like them for answering
- Conquerors (rulers of conquered titles) can now call on rulers from back home (Cultural Bonds) while defending against other cultures
- Fixed a rare crash in the Diplomacy View
- The 'vassalize_or_take_under_title' effect now correctly restores the taker liege afterward
- Fixed a bug where certain event effects in CBs could take Patrician titles
- Fixed a bug with the backend poster not having a HTTP POST timeout
- Fixed a bug with the random seed in event effect descriptions not matching the actual effect
- Fixed a bug where rampaging mercs would make an invalid DoW
- Fixed a bug preventing you from nominating bishop successors
- Muslim pulse events are now triggered correctly
- Fixed misplaced IF in decadence_invasion
- Added additional rulers to Chalkidike in the history database
- Chancellor event while improving relations is now properly triggered
- Fixed error in polygamy event
- Fixed issue with event where a character tries to free his/her spouse
- Added missing parents to several Arabic characters
- Added additional Alan dynasties
- Fixes to several Welsh dynasty names
- Some Armenian dynasty names are now Greek as intended
- Fixed the dynasty of Udalard de Besalu
- Characters older than 50 will no longer fight in tournaments
- Fixed pronoun error in Guardian event
- Removed superfluous church opinion effect from several Muslim-only event modifiers
- Fixed issue where the wife of a courtier could suggest a new Lord Spiritual
- Fixed option effect in event 1009
- Added additional Irish and Welsh dynasties and characters

FOR MODDERS:
- The event trigger and effect 'any_faction_backer' without a 'faction' field now work for the backers of all factions
- The 'copy_title_history' effect now also copies de jure assimilation
- Fixed some bugs with the 'de_jure_liege_or_above' and 'de_jure_vassal_or_below' triggers
- Character event flags are now shown in the portrait debug tooltip
- The modifier 'assassinate_chance_modifier' on the acting ruler now has an effect
- Added trigger 'is_at_sea'
- Added trigger 'is_patrician'
- Added trigger 'is_merchant_republic'
- Removed unused on actions 'on_siege_won' and 'on_siege_list'.
- Added on action 'on_siege_over' which triggers for all characters in the province
- Exported PATRICIAN_CAMPAIGN_FUND_FACTOR to defines
- Exported DOGE_SUCC_RANDOM_FACTOR to defines
- Added effects 'embargo' and 'lift_embargo'
- Added trigger 'has_trade_post'
- Added event target 'trade_post_owner'
- Added event effect 'seize_trade_post'
- Added 'attrition' field to the 'spawn_unit' effect. This is an attrition multiplier.
- Added 'cuckoo' (impregnation) console command
- Added 'culture = random' to 'create_character' and related event effects
- Added 'rep_trade_posts' Plot type
- Added define 'ENFORCE_ONE_OF_EACH_HOLDING' (Require players to build at least one City, Temple and Castle in each province)
- Added event target 'plot_target_province'
- Added a 'capital_holding' event target
- Added trigger 'num_of_trade_posts'
- Added trigger 'num_of_trade_post_diff'
- Added event trigger 'any_trade_post'
- Added event effect 'any_trade_post'
- Added event effect 'random_trade_post'
- Added 'same_religion = yes' field to the effect 'vassalize_or_take_under_title'. It will only vassalize rulers of the taker's religion
- Added 'is_patrician' filter to events
- Increased max demesne size limit for Patricians by 1 (define DEMESNE_MAX_SIZE_PATRICIAN)
- Added trigger 'any_attacker' (war scope)
- Added trigger 'any_defender' (war scope)
- Added 'inherit' field to opinion modifiers

Increased the strength of the Timurids

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2154/jrfpjctwynmhqdx6brfj2ec.jpg

[Raptor1]

- The Pirate King Kyrillos is now correctly imprisoned when captured through event

So you can do that. Think you should purge your navy now?

[Oberon]

So you can do that. Think you should purge your navy now?

:yep:

Where's that Greek fire, I have some Dromons to visit... :shifty:

[Hottentot]

Anyone else have experiences from the relatively recent Republic DLC? I got it myself a few days ago and have been testing it this weekend.

Playing a republic feels suitably different, but I can't help feeling that Paradox has made a somewhat half-baked job. It's like they put up a skeleton and didn't bother adding too much meat to it.

Sure, the republics are different. The concept of competing with the other patrician families over controlling the trade routes is cool. Certainly a refreshing change from the feudal noble inheritance game and the muslims' "Durr, kill all stomp stomp stomp" map painting. But it's also super repetitive. OK, I can build trade posts. Nice. I can plot or go to war to capture trade posts from other families. Cool. Then I can build more trade posts. And hope I'll one day be elected Doge. While waiting, let me build a few more trade posts. Oh, I got an event saying I got 100 gold. Cool: I'll use it to build more trade posts. Damn, another event says I lost 50 gold. Oh well, I guess I'll have to build more trade posts to make up for the loss. What, another event saying I lost 50 gold? Wait, it's exactly the same event as the last one! Oh well. Let's build more trade posts...

I just can't see how I'm living in a city when there is nothing related to the city happening. All I get is events saying I either gained or lost gold. Then at some point I became Doge and guess what I got? More events saying I either gained or lost gold. And guess what I did? Yeah, build more trade posts. Meanwhile I also got into feud with another family through an event chain. Other than the cool event chain where I got to throw the other patrician out of my party pretty much nothing happened. I was like "Oh [beeb]" when my mortal enemy got elected Doge after me. I waited and waited until finally...he appointed me as steward and granted me a city for my loyal service? Uh...:doh:

The republics also feel weirdly chosen. The republic of Gotland in the North has no competition whatsoever. On the other hand the Mediterranean is ridiculously overcrowded with Genoa, Venice and Pisa all stuck next to each other. And then there is the HRE to the North of them who every now and then just says: "LOL, I declare war on you for no apparent reason."

OK, I get it: it's just a 10€ DLC. For such price it's totally worth the price, if only to get a momentary respite from trying to murder your eldest imbecile son to get his genius half brother inherit instead. But it's also why I'm thinking the new Paradox policy of not doing large expansions but cheap DLC packages isn't the right direction. Perhaps they are going to flesh out the republic gameplay in patches later, but at the moment the DLC feels more like a minigame rather than a decent alternative.

[Hottentot]

Sorry for the monologue, but this is just getting silly now even by my standards.

Got bored of getting smashed around by the HRE and being an ass to the other republics, so tried Gotland instead. Got elected the big boss again. Now I don't even need to plot to acquire the trade posts from the other families, I can simply take them. Sure, I still need to have a formal plot and 3 supporters, but I alone have over 1000 % plot power and I can ask my own courtiers and sons to support my plot. :doh:

I'm racking so much money I don't even know where to spend it. Every time it seems someone is going to bypass the member of my own dynasty in the elections, I simply shove ridiculous amounts of gold to the elections and boom, inheritance secured again. The other families are not even upgrading their trade posts properly, so they can't keep up with the income war. More income means more stuff and more stuff means more income. And this is only my second generation, for goodness' sake!

http://i.imgur.com/jAckogJ.jpg

See that? Everything in the blue is mine and keep in mind that it took a while to get the snowball rolling. If a complete dolt like me can achieve that without intentional powergaming, then what can an actually competent player do?

Paradox, fix or do sumfink? :doh:

[Raptor1]

I've only played a couple of rather short Republic-based games so far (always as Gotland with the goal of forming the Hanseatic League), so I can't comment on how these go in the long term, but I have noticed the AI is utterly incompetent at conducting trade port wars. They always send their troops after the Republic's main holding, which I suppose makes sense if you're the ruler of it but doesn't actually do anything if you're just a Patrician, while allowing you to freely rampage through their trade ports.

As for them not upgrading trade ports, I have actually seen the AI do it. I know because I find it cheaper and easier to let other Patrician families build trade ports and then grab them in a war than to build them myself.

Anyway, I'm sure Paradox will balance it better and improve the AI with patches. If not, there are always mods...

[Hottentot]

For anyone thinking of buying this game, there is a series of multiplayer videos (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?660894-Three-Kings-A-Scandinavian-Multiplayer-Extravaganza&) going on where three of the developers are playing the game in Scandinavia and also explaining stuff as they go. Granted they are all playing Kings, so one of the major parts of the game is missing (rising in ranks and the challenges of being a minor power inside a huge kingdom), but all in all it's very nice and gives a good picture of what CK2 is like.

[TarJak]

Anyone else have experiences from the relatively recent Republic DLC? I got it myself a few days ago and have been testing it this weekend.

Playing a republic feels suitably different, but I can't help feeling that Paradox has made a somewhat half-baked job. It's like they put up a skeleton and didn't bother adding too much meat to it.

Sure, the republics are different. The concept of competing with the other patrician families over controlling the trade routes is cool. Certainly a refreshing change from the feudal noble inheritance game and the muslims' "Durr, kill all stomp stomp stomp" map painting. But it's also super repetitive. OK, I can build trade posts. Nice. I can plot or go to war to capture trade posts from other families. Cool. Then I can build more trade posts. And hope I'll one day be elected Doge. While waiting, let me build a few more trade posts. Oh, I got an event saying I got 100 gold. Cool: I'll use it to build more trade posts. Damn, another event says I lost 50 gold. Oh well, I guess I'll have to build more trade posts to make up for the loss. What, another event saying I lost 50 gold? Wait, it's exactly the same event as the last one! Oh well. Let's build more trade posts...

I just can't see how I'm living in a city when there is nothing related to the city happening. All I get is events saying I either gained or lost gold. Then at some point I became Doge and guess what I got? More events saying I either gained or lost gold. And guess what I did? Yeah, build more trade posts. Meanwhile I also got into feud with another family through an event chain. Other than the cool event chain where I got to throw the other patrician out of my party pretty much nothing happened. I was like "Oh [beeb]" when my mortal enemy got elected Doge after me. I waited and waited until finally...he appointed me as steward and granted me a city for my loyal service? Uh...:doh:

The republics also feel weirdly chosen. The republic of Gotland in the North has no competition whatsoever. On the other hand the Mediterranean is ridiculously overcrowded with Genoa, Venice and Pisa all stuck next to each other. And then there is the HRE to the North of them who every now and then just says: "LOL, I declare war on you for no apparent reason."

OK, I get it: it's just a 10€ DLC. For such price it's totally worth the price, if only to get a momentary respite from trying to murder your eldest imbecile son to get his genius half brother inherit instead. But it's also why I'm thinking the new Paradox policy of not doing large expansions but cheap DLC packages isn't the right direction. Perhaps they are going to flesh out the republic gameplay in patches later, but at the moment the DLC feels more like a minigame rather than a decent alternative.
So you don't like Trade Posts?:O:

[Hottentot]

Why, I love trade posts! Why else would I be spamming them from Finland to the Western coast of Ireland? Other than not having anything else to do with my pocket money, that is.

Oh, I love them so much that I just went to war over one. The Hanseatic League appeared and took a bunch of my posts with it through an event (obviously needing a kickstart since it appears in the middle of the game when Gotland has already established its dominance.) So I said "nuh-uh" and started a war to get my property in Gdansk back.

It was a short and one sided affair which resulted in Gdansk becoming firmly blue again. But then the weird thing happened: just as I was planning on attacking them again before they had time to grow into a threat they...disappeared, for the lack of a better word. All the provinces they had trade posts in were now empty again and there was no sign of the League to be found anywhere. I had already saved money to bribe the king of Denmark to embargo them, but all I could ask him was to declare war on one of the Mediterranean republics.

It's as if, after losing one war, they just packed up their gear and vanished into thin air. No idea if this is a bug or intentional, but I was honestly excited of the idea of finally having some serious competetion. :-?

[HunterICX]

And here we go...Pagans!!!

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/crusader-kings-ii-the-old-gods#about_game-tab

Description

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods, the fourth expansion for the critically praised strategy/RPG, finally enables you to play as a Pagan or Zoroastrian ruler, with particular focus on the dreaded Vikings and their tradition of pillage and adventure.
Crusader Kings II explores one of the defining periods in world history in an experience crafted by Paradox Development Studio, the masters of Strategy. Medieval Europe comes to life in this game of knights, schemes and thrones.

Features



Play as a Pagan chieftain and ravage your weak neighbors. If you remain at peace for too long, your people will grow restless...
New special start date in 867 AD: The Viking Rurik has founded the kingdom of Rus and the Great Heathen Army under the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok rampages through England.
Play as a Zoroastrian lord and restore your ancient religion to prominence.
Adventurers: Landless characters can gather armies and go off to carve out new realms on their own.
Prepared Invasions: Declare your intention to invade and watch your armies grow with adventurers and restless warriors, but don't wait too long to start your war or it might all fall apart...
Rebels with a Cause: Rebels are no longer a faceless menace – they are now led by characters with agendas.
Loot and pillage provinces. Burn down their cities and take their gold!
Sacrifice to Odin at the great Blot!
Christians and Muslims can dispatch missions to convert the depraved heathens.
New beautiful Pagan interface skin.
New events and decisions: berserkers, sejdr, curses, omens, divinations, runestones and much more.



http://blit.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/shut-up-and-take-my-money-300x187.jpg

HunterICX

[Oberon]

Fffff, between this and Heart of Darkness for Vicky II...my wallet was doing so well...

[Raptor1]

Fffff, between this and Heart of Darkness for Vicky II...my wallet was doing so well...

Well, Heart of Darkness is coming out in Q1 and The Old Gods is in Q2, which at least means one doesn't have to pay all at once. Though it also means that we have to wait all the way until Q2 for the Dark Age starting date... :wah:

Speaking of Heart of Darkness (since we have no active Vicky II thread). It looks like they're bringing a few of the best features of Pride of Nations into it, which is immensely awesome.

[Hottentot]

Really wondering what will become of this. On one hand it's filling a big gap in the game as far as playables go and on the other hand it sounds like an over ambitious one size fits all solution which ends up being super generic for everyone except the vikings. Depends on how they'll implement the group specific events and how many there will be.

Personally I'm a little underwhelmed that they went with vikings, but I suppose money and mental images talk louder than, say, pagan groups that actually mattered in the majority of the game's period (the Mongols and the Baltic pagans for one.) Wondering how well the special earlier start date will cure this.

Forum talk says it'll be released in Q2 of 2013, so seems they are at least taking plenty of time to make it. A good sign.

[Oberon]

Really wondering what will become of this. On one hand it's filling a big gap in the game as far as playables go and on the other hand it sounds like an over ambitious one size fits all solution which ends up being super generic for everyone except the vikings. Depends on how they'll implement the group specific events and how many there will be.

That is the problem with paganism, there were a lot of different sects so if you were to model all of the known ones then it would be a new game in itself...however, that's not to say that they won't flesh out the other tribes in later DLC, the Mongols in particular I suspect will get a closer look in a later DLC. I imagine though it'll be the most common pagan sects that are represented in detail and generic events for others. But, we shall see, it's certainly got my vote. :yep:

[Hottentot]

That is the problem with paganism, there were a lot of different sects so if you were to model all of the known ones then it would be a new game in itself...however, that's not to say that they won't flesh out the other tribes in later DLC, the Mongols in particular I suspect will get a closer look in a later DLC.

Aye, that's my hopes as well. Don't get me wrong, I want this to succeed. After all, my own ancestors in the game's period were pagans and are properly portrayed as such, however insignificant they might have been in the larger scale of things.

I'm not asking for Finnish pagans DLC because it wouldn't make any sense. It's just that after the Republic DLC I'm a little wary. While it's good, it still feels very empty even when its focus is on very small scope. Now try applying such a huge scope as "Pagan DLC" and try telling me it somehow won't end up the same?

Crossing fingers.

[Raptor1]

Paradox said that while the Vikings are the main focus of this expansion, the Zoroastrians and all the other pagan groups will also receive unique content. Hopefully that will be enough to make them not generic (particularly the Baltic pagans and the Mongols which are the most important ones for the game's original time period). If not, there are always mods.

The 9th century starting date is by far the most interesting thing in this DLC in my opinion. I wonder how they'll represent some of the bigger changes in setup from 1066 and 867, like the Frankish Kingdoms not yet becoming France and the HRE, the various kingdoms inhabiting Britain (and their eventual unification) or the schism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches still having not completely occurred.

[Hottentot]

Events might be one solution. But if they go that way, I hope they make sensible conditions that have to be met before they fire. The thing I like in CK2 the most compared to the other Paradox games I have played is that it's believeable enough (OK, bar the silly Aztec DLC), but does not force historical events to happen even when they make no sense in the current game's context.

Like saying I went bankrupt with Spain in EU2 when I was in fact doing much better than Spain in reality was, or saying the Winter War was a horrible mistake for the Soviet Union in The Darkest Hour while my tanks were busy chasing the remnants of the Finnish army around their Western coast. :har:

Edit: Oops, I think I misunderstood your question and took it to mean how things will develop from the new early start date's different background to the 1066 start's conditions.

[Raptor1]

Edit: Oops, I think I misunderstood your question and took it to mean how things will develop from the new early start date's different background to the 1066 start's conditions.

No, that's part of what I meant. I'm wondering both how things will be represented in the initial setup and how the game will handle the changes that occur between 867 and 1066.

Take West Francia for example, it's essentially the same title that France is later on, but under a different name. Are they just going to have the Kingdom of France there from the beginning? Are they going to have a (titular?) Kingdom of West Francia, separate from the Kingdom of France which would then be formable? Are they going to have a decision that renames West Francia into France under the right conditions? There are a lot of things like that which are pretty well established during the time period between 1066 and 1453 but change fairly significantly between 867 and 1066.

[Oberon]

I'm correct in thinking that about that time was the time of Mercia, East Angle, Hwicce and the like? :hmmm:
Played a great Civ III mod based in that area once, The Rood and the Dragon (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=263), very nice indeed.
Will make a nice game-play mechanic having to fight and conquer the other Breton nations to become Bretwalda. Admittedly though, having to fight and conquer most of Britain is something that seems to happen every ten years in most CKII games... :hmmm:

[Raptor1]

I'm correct in thinking that about that time was the time of Mercia, East Angle, Hwicce and the like? :hmmm:
Played a great Civ III mod based in that area once, The Rood and the Dragon (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=263), very nice indeed.
Will make a nice game-play mechanic having to fight and conquer the other Breton nations to become Bretwalda. Admittedly though, having to fight and conquer most of Britain is something that seems to happen every ten years in most CKII games... :hmmm:

I'm not sure what exact Kingdoms were independent in 867, but yes, that was the general situation until Wessex managed to unify most of England in the 10th century.

Which reminds me that I should really get the books I'm missing from Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories series...

[Hottentot]

Admittedly though, having to fight and conquer most of Britain is something that seems to happen every ten years in most CKII games... :hmmm:

The fact that the Kings keep dying in suspicious accident after a year on the throne, thus resulting in yet another succession crisis, might have something to do with it.

It's not my fault they can't make proper railings on their balconies. Honest!

(Stupid woman, start making babies so I can inherit.)

[Crécy]

Which reminds me that I should really get the books I'm missing from Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories series...

Just bought the first one :up:. Though I don't know when I have the time for it. Got quite a lot of books in line waiting to be read...

[HunterICX]

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods Interview - Everything we know so far.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/05/crusader-kings-ii-the-old-gods-everything-we-know-so-far/

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

So I rage-quit. I said, “This needs balancing! It’s broken! You need to fix this!”I expect a lot of that to happen around the fanbase when the DLC is released. Along with the huge tidal wave of disappointment spiced with the flotsam from all the broken dreams. The usual.


So invasions aren’t necessarily everyone within the Pagan religious group.

Not necessarily. We’ll just be playing around a lot with them. If it ends up with, like, the Finns invading Spain all the time, we’ll have to say, “Look, Finns, you’re not getting the invasion CB.” So we’ll be looking at what feels historical and what’s fun with all of the pagan religions.Well there you go, artificially curb our awesomeness again because you're still better...I mean bitter that we are bitter...I mean better hockey players than you are. Stupid revisionist imperialist bättre folk [grumble mumble Winter War grumble mumble beeb].

[Crécy]

Look, Finns, you’re not getting the invasion CB

Pre-order... Canceled...

[Hottentot]

Pre-order... Canceled...

It's not even realistic, for goodness' sake! You only need to open your eyes to realize that Finns are invading Spain all the time. We even have a colony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuengirola) on the Southern coast! Trust me, I know, I've lived in there.

I demand a special Finnish Tourist CB that lets the Finns form free doomstacks with bonus to martial but malus to diplomacy due to the amount of alcohol drunk before the war and then use them to invade any coastal city along the Mediterranean. Paradox, fix or do sumfink!

[TarJak]

It's not even realistic, for goodness' sake! You only need to open your eyes to realize that Finns are invading Spain all the time. We even have a colony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuengirola) on the Southern coast! Trust me, I know, I've lived in there.

I demand a special Finnish Tourist CB that lets the Finns form free doomstacks with bonus to martial but malus to diplomacy due to the amount of alcohol drunk before the war and then use them to invade any coastal city along the Mediterranean. Paradox, fix or do sumfink!

LOL you'd just get blitzed by the doomstacks of Brits and Germans. You have to get up very early to get one of those seats by the pool.:O:

[HunterICX]

Dev Diary + Screenies for the Old Gods DLC! :D

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?1356-Crusader-Kings-II-The-Old-Gods-Dev-Diary-1-A-Different-Europe&

HunterICX

[HunterICX]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?679685-First-Ever-Screenshot-Released-for-Crusader-Kings-Z

IF this is a April Fools Joke. - :haha:

IF this is legit -
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/9164/shutupandtakemymoneyuk.jpg

HunterICX

[TarJak]

Check date...:nope:

[HunterICX]

I'm aware of that, reason I put it above it's funny if it's a April's fools joke but with Paradox you never know.

HunterICX

[Crécy]

That's a DLC I would happily pay for. That can't be said from, for example, Sunset Invasion.

[Oberon]

Aaah, excellent, the long awaited Mongol hordes pack! :yep:

[Spike88]

Check date...:nope:

Magicka:Vietnam started as an April Fools joke.

[HunterICX]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/04/thorful-crusader-kings-ii-the-old-gods-dev-diaries/

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

Eeergh, zombie thread from the grave! BRAAAINS!!!

Ahem. The Old Gods and the Patch 1.10 have been released apparently. The patch looks pretty promising at least (see notes here (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?690456-Crusader-Kings-II-1.10-PATCH-RELEASED-Checksum-SKDF-NOT-for-problem-reports!&), it's too long to copy/paste). I briefly checked out the new technology system and it seems like an improvement, especially when your ruler's stats effect how many of each "points" you get and the learning stat seems finally useful. Time to fire up CK 2 again (as if I didn't have too many games on my plate already...)



As for the Old Gods, I think I'll be waiting for a sale. Because if the old omens are true, its development among the official forum's fanbase is as follows:

(T = The release date of the new DLC)

T minus 28: "OMG OMG OMG THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST THING EVER I'M NEVER GOING TO PLAY ANYTHING ELSE ANYMORE!!!!111"

T minus 15: "OMG OMG OMG WHY ISN'T IT RELEASED ALREADY??!! WHO ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO PLAY AS? I WANT TO BE A MUSLIM VAMPIRE VIKING ARAB MONGOL HORSE ARCHER!!!!!"

T minus 10: "Is it here yet, is it here yet??!!"

T minus 5: "Paradox, when is the new DLC released??!!"

T minus 1: "OMG OMG OMG IT'S ALMOST HERE!!! SACKING GARDEN OF EDEN AS A HALF DRAGON PRETZEL WITH HORNED HELMET, HERE I COME!!!"

T: "IS IT HERE YET IS IT HERE YET??!! I'M GOING TO START 1000000TH THREAD ASKING IS IT HERE YET!!!!!"

T plus 1: "OMG this so great!! Anyone else ever raid as vikings??!! Or am I the only one who ever does that??!! OMG!!!"

T plus 5: "WTFBBQ, I got raider by vikings??!! I think I should report this on the bug reports forum!!"

T plus 10: "OMG the vikings are totally OP and there isn't enough content for the Cheesepuffians in this DLC!! Paradox fix or do sumfink!!"

T plus 15: "ZOMGBOMB where's the patch?! This game is totally unplayable with the OP Pagans owning my county of Zobbaladoo!"

T plus 20: "PARADOOOOX! NERF THE VIKINGS!! THEY'RE MEAN!!"

T plus 25: "Paradox didn't deliver the promises I gave myself three months before this DLC was released! This is BS!"

T plus 28: "Paradox, when is the next DLC going to be released? We still haven't the peasant turnips playable and this game is totally lacking playable peasant turnips!"

T plus Something: countless of threads demanding playable peasant turnips until Paradox finally agrees to do it and we are back to T minus 28.

[HunterICX]

CKII: The Old Gods EXTREME release trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y53_GV2aAg8&feature=youtu.be

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm183/Smilingbandit_strikesagain/trophies/th_viking_smiley_81.gif

HunterICX

[HunterICX]

:rotfl2:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4782/ck21.jpg

HunterICX

[Hottentot]

Uh, not that I don't appreciate the new patch's improvements, but I'm seriously starting to miss the days when we only had the HRE and the ERE and not every single little piece of insignificant piece of backwater land was called "empire" (in the game's terms, that is: on the other hand I would be all for localized titles and have an Irish count call himself an emperor if he so wanted to.)

I mean, empire of Italy?! Which is exactly the same geographical area as the Kingdom of Italy that doesn't even include the whole peninsula because half of it belongs to de jure ERE. Mini empires of Carpathia and Wendish empire? And once these are formed, I'm supposed to believe they are equal with the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople? Yeah. :shifty:

I wish Paradox would finally just implement the system in which anyone with enough king titles, land and prestige could form an empire and it would be called the empire of whatever his primary title is. I wonder when we finally get the de jure empire of Ireland, since every second CK2 player seems to be King of Ireland.

Oh, and T + 1 and the game has already been declared unplayable due to ToG. :rotfl2:

[Drew]

I'm new here and just got this game at the last Steam sale. Guess I need to give it a go. Enjoyed reading this thread.

[Hottentot]

WE ARE THE BORG

http://i.imgur.com/WZKAqpK.jpg

Moral of the story: being able to holy war pretty much the entire rest of the world is hilariously broken.

[TarJak]

Yeah yeah, I know zombie thread yadda yadda...

Got myself a situation. Currently playing an Irish dynasty that holds the empire of Alba/Britain, most of the Iberian peninsula and I married the heir to the Byzantine empire.

We had a daughter and a son prior to her ascension so kiddies number 3 & 4 were born in the purple making them the heir of Byzantine but our first son the heir of my empire. Not sure if infanticide will work to get both empires under my dynasty. I don't get to add Son#1 as Despot as I'm not In the seat for Byzantine yet.

The way I see it I can bump off #1 son or both #3 & #4. But stll being in the prime of life mum and dad are likely to have more purple sprogs.

I could also kill off mum as well which should force the succession if #3 & #4 are out of the way.

Anyone have any ideas suggestion thoughts of any kind?

[TarJak]

I decided to kill of the first son which was not a bad idea because mum and dad had another 3 kids before mum died. Dad ended up committing suicide to get the success rolling and now I'm trying to sort out the Byzantine mess. Lots of holy wars to do.:woot::arrgh!:

[Oberon]

Yeah, just watch yourself in Byzantine, they have a nice way of dealing with assassins. I tried getting rid of my aunt, the Empress, who had overthrown me after my father had a rule of about three months before snuffing it of pneumonia, it failed miserably and I was imprisoned, and then released...but not before the guards visited me in the small hours with a pair of scissors, and I don't have any children.
On the up side, when I finally snuff it it should switch over to a more capable character. :haha:

[TarJak]

As I bumped off the one who wasn't getting the Byzantine throne it looks like they let me keep having kids. Now playing as number 2 son and taking back my dejure duchies and counties off the mullahs and Mongols.