CKII is released.

[Whisky]

Seljuk never appeared in my game and its like year 1000 AD. Just as well, I would have gotten enriched good.
Is Seljuk's appearance random?

I think it's determined by what you select in the BIG BOOK OF PRE-GAME SETTINGS whenever you start.

Though I think the default is around then, so who knows what really happened.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Only good and fun game is HIP one; I just can't force myself to play vanilla anymore and other good mods are not 2.7 ready yet. Started as Last Roman Strategos of Italy (Rus Variangian Guard member) and by ways of creating diplomacy managed to kill the Norman Lord there and then enough of Mercs to assrape his indolent children; liberating Sicily was easy then; now I am Exarch (Vice Emperor) of Italias and fabricating claims on Latium to take Rome and change my culture to Roman one via event (thanks to ancient religions mod) and make Roman Empire Great Again! Its nice there is chance now for Komenoi Emperor to retain the Imperial Throne and beat back the Seljuck Turks invasion although probably this would make my schemes to conquer Liberate hole Italy and Northern Africa a bit harder.... the tyranny of choice Commissar guess.

 

[Sranchammer]

 

[vonAchdorf]

More and more evidence that 1337 hours are a threshold for a comprehensive and fact based evaluation of a game.

 

[Whisky]

Skyway...is that you?

 

[Wilian]

Skyway...is that you?

What happened to Skyway actually? Last rumour I heard is that he died while couping the hell out of Ukraine.

 

[Delterius]

so you're stuck as the vassal of muslims no matter what.

Start off as muslim, create a power base of most of Persia and convert to local religion.

 

[Whisky]

Skyway...is that you?

What happened to Skyway actually? Last rumour I heard is that he died while couping the hell out of Ukraine.

I think one of the CDS members said he got married and left Ukraine or something.

 

[Wilian]

Skyway...is that you?

What happened to Skyway actually? Last rumour I heard is that he died while couping the hell out of Ukraine.

I think one of the CDS members said he got married and left Ukraine or something.

That'd be kinda anti-climatic. Not that I wish his death.

 

[Whisky]

Skyway...is that you?

What happened to Skyway actually? Last rumour I heard is that he died while couping the hell out of Ukraine.

I think one of the CDS members said he got married and left Ukraine or something.

That'd be kinda anti-climatic. Not that I wish his death.

Life isn't always so dramatic, unfortunately. Of course, we can always make up a more interesting story.

For example: I think he stowed away on a potato freight train to get into West Europe, then conned his way on an overseas flight, and using all his life-savings, opened up a sandwich shop at Vancouver Airport.

I think of him everytime I make a flight to the USA.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

CAn anyone upload some speed-helping mods for me? The ones that deal with fog and water and make the map look ok while making the game faster

 

[wwsd]

I finally bit the bullet and got the Monks DLC on a decent discount. I must admit the societies are pretty fun as they actually give you something to do besides staring at the map, waiting for your truce to expire or whatever. But I get the feeling the novelty wears off pretty quickly. We're still playing and Paradox are laughing all the way to the bank, so I guess everyone's happy, but it doesn't feel right.

So I'm having loads of fun trying to expand one-county Neapolis. With one ruler, I joined the Satanic cult, of course. She advanced in the ranks pretty well and it was loads of fun doing evil stuff, seducing priests and then sacrificing them for more powers, but the dark magic left its effects on her body and she died at a young age. Next one joined the Hermetics, and he became a great mystic. A third one became goody two-shoes, spreading virtues everywhere and insta-converting every conquered province.

It's all pretty fun, but I get the feeling that once you've gone through a certain type of society once, it's not going to offer much new stuff when you do it with another character later. Only thing I haven't tried yet is the secret heretic cult type of society, which seems nice. This kind of mechanic for heresies always made more sense to me so I look forward to playing around with it. But I also get the feeling that if you don't join a society yourself, you're never really affected by them. So the integration with existing game mechanics is not brilliant, just like with earlier DLCs.

 

[Nirvash]

I have yet to find a not satan society.
The powers are so so, curses nearly always misfires and you have to spam getting the -50 satanist from everyone, kidnappings are fine, the most op thing is if you mange to get in top guys so they can't refuse you anything.

And i love getting the devil child...

...a fermale and i'm a patrician, killed 3 sons and 2 uncles before i managed to marry her to some subchief in poland, she got herself killed at 23.

 

[Atomkilla]

But I also get the feeling that if you don't join a society yourself, you're never really affected by them

For the most part, yeah, but I think Satanists do leave their mark (no pun intended). IIRC last time I played, after my immortal Satanic master Basileus died (don't ask), for two generations later there were still people who I knew were Satanists from before doing their thing in my people - cursing people, driving them mad etc. It does feel all very minor tho, and I have yet to see members of other groups actually doing something without me participating.

And yeah, the overall DLC is mediocre. It's fun to experiment, but it's also broken, especially the Hermetic Society.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

CAn anyone upload some speed-helping mods for me? The ones that deal with fog and water and make the map look ok while making the game faster

These?

 

[wwsd]

Craziest thing in a recent 1066 game: the Seljuks actually managed to conquer all of Anatolia, then Constantinople and all the provinces part of the de jure "Kingdom of Greece" (lol). The Byzantine Empire itself simply kept existing, limited basically to Bulgaria and Serbia. It got me thinking that perhaps the Byzantine title should be a titular one, or that it should be possible for the conqueror of "Greece" and Anatolia to destroy it and create his own Rum/Ottoman/Latin/whatever imperial title. It's a bit silly and OP (considering certain laws available to them) for the Empire to just keep persisting. If Greece/Anatolia gets conquered, other Orthodox-group rulers should get the chance to restore the Empire if they can take it back from the infidels. Or is this implemented already?

 

[LizardWizard]

Why didn't you fuckers mention a new version of Geheimnisacht was dropped

 

[Commissar Draco]

Craziest thing in a recent 1066 game: the Seljuks actually managed to conquer all of Anatolia, then Constantinople and all the provinces part of the de jure "Kingdom of Greece" (lol). The Byzantine Empire itself simply kept existing, limited basically to Bulgaria and Serbia. It got me thinking that perhaps the Byzantine title should be a titular one, or that it should be possible for the conqueror of "Greece" and Anatolia to destroy it and create his own Rum/Ottoman/Latin/whatever imperial title. It's a bit silly and OP (considering certain laws available to them) for the Empire to just keep persisting. If Greece/Anatolia gets conquered, other Orthodox-group rulers should get the chance to restore the Empire if they can take it back from the infidels. Or is this implemented already?

Roman Empire was never tied to set lands; if the state survived the fall of Ravenna in 476 and Constantinople in 1204 You could imagine Basileaus sneaking pass the Turkish blockade and establishing himself as Russian Prince for an example; But I do afraid the Title should be Titular or existing as landless the way Pope or Ecumenical Patriarch works as long as their proper succession. BTW there are events to restablish Empire after its fall as long as you play as Orthodox Rhomanoi in both HIP and CK +.

 

[Kuattro]

Why didn't you fuckers mention a new version of Geheimnisacht was dropped

Watch out, the modding team is basically in tatters right now and they released the update as it was because they don't know when or if they'll get to get back to working seriously on it. It's quite rough around the edges and some things don't work at all (like the "smith" events, spend 1000+ gold in some fancy weapon or jewel, get shit all in return, fucking scammers everywhere).

They released a small hotfix for magic events (which I think didn't work at all at release), and they are still working on fixing bugs, but it is unknown how long it will take.

Still enjoyable, though, of course. Even if you're not a fan of Warhammer (the old Warhammer, not the... new thing they perpetrated), which I am not.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Good to know there is Hot-fix Comrade.

 

[Atomkilla]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck2-dev-diary-61-the-dragon-throne.1038599/


China confirmed as next DLC, but without map expansion.

 

[vonAchdorf]

The Swedish summer vacations are drawing to a close and I’m back and eager to talk some more Crusader Kings! What better way to kick off the end of summer than by revealing the theme of the next expansion? Yes my friends, it’s China! Now, before you get all emotional one way or the other, we’re not actually going to expand the map farther east. We considered doing that, long and hard, but eventually decided on a different approach that would not strain performance and stability beyond reason. As I mentioned in Dev Diary #51, it bothers me that the eastern edge of the map just cuts off in such an unnatural way. Playing in the Orient, you should always feel like you’re in the shadow of the Dragon. It should be an interesting and dynamic region right in the center of the Old World. So, we came up with the idea of adding China as a political entity even though you cannot actually see most of its territory.

There is a new screen you can open up, which, if you’re within range of China, allows you to interact with the Emperor in various interesting ways. China can grant many wonderful boons if you’re in the emperor’s good graces, but, depending on the current status and policy of the Dragon Throne, the emperor can also decide you’d better show some respect and become a tributary state. When there is turmoil in China, displaced or fleeing armies can arrive on the map and cause all kinds of trouble. China can even seize and rule actual provinces, but the emperor leaves the governing of such areas to the Governor of the Western Protectorate (or, to be a stickler, the “Protectorate General to Pacify the West”.) Potentially, this on-map part of China can grow enormously powerful, but you should not have to worry too much as long as you enjoy the emperor’s grace…


That’s going to be all for now. I’m sure you have a million questions, but you’ll have to wait for the upcoming dev diaries.

Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our CK2 livestreams between 16 to 18:00 CET!

The mechanics look someone unique and interesting, but still China doesn't really interest me that much while the core game could use some fresh ideas and gameplay.

 

[Popiel]

This is actually a good idea, or at the very least will provide a couple of nice mechanics for modders.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I don't even scroll as far as India in the majority of my games.

 

[Atomkilla]

Dunno. All of this reminds me too much of Sunset Invasion. Offscreen empire that invades and influences, but cannot be conquered at the source.
To be fair, I'm glad that the empty eastern part of the map is finally getting filled with something, and I'm glad the map isn't getting expanded, but I'm not sure how all of this will be handled. Hindus and Mongols might become more interesting to play now. Never cared about either of those.


From what I understand, this is the penultimate DLC, so at least the whole CK2 chapter will finally find some closure, maybe even by the end of the year. I'm worried though because so many things in the core game and DLCs already don't work that well and most likely will never get fixed.