CKII is released.

[DakaSha]

Also am I the only one that thinks all the DLC is incredibly ? 5(!) Dollars for a fucking character editor that should be included in the game anyways?

 

[PorkaMorka]

I'm pretty butthurt about the Mongol Faces DLC.

If I'm going to have to pay extra for Mongol faces, they damn well better be up to the standards of the originals.

But that is not the case. The built in European and Middle Eastern portraits have an extremely consistent and high quality look, so they integrate together perfectly. They're awesome.

The Mongol faces were obviously done by a different person (possibly an intern) and they have a slightly different style which doesn't mesh with the others. Putting aside the different style, the quality and clarity is a bit lower and they generally appear rather awkward in game.

 

[Phelot]

Also am I the only one that thinks all the DLC is incredibly ? 5(!) Dollars for a fucking character editor that should be included in the game anyways?

Yeah, the character editor is kind of stupid for the price. I got it only because I had enough blue coins with GamersGate. It is kind of nice in that it isn't a cheat mode that just lets you grab every good trait, but at the same time. Still, it's easy enough starting as a 16 year old with everything else blank and just grabbing up traits as random events occur. At least you don't have to play as a guy with a goiter if you don't want.

Haven't gotten any other ones. Not really interested in playing as Muslims or pagans so... though I'll probably get that expansion when it's on sale.

As for your other question, this is coming from someone that isn't quite as invested into the game as Trash or Vaarna is, but I'd say that yes every game will be different. Playing as Duke of Trondelag, for example, I might get voted in as King of Norway, or I might not, might even get into a war with my liege. Kind of depends on all kinds of random events.

Also, what Vaarna said. Playing as some bumfuck count in the middle of HRE might not leave much room for expansion other than endless squabbles and petty infighting, while playing in Iberia can be a real struggle against the Muslims. Become GOD EMPERAW of Byzantine rather easily and take over Asia Minor, or carve out a nice little northern Empire as an eastern expanding Norway or Sweden.

I personally have most fun either keeping together a huge empire like BYZ or trying to work my way up the ladder to king.

EDIT: The Mongol faces DLC is a pretty good example of a bullshit DLC. They should have been in the original game. Didn't someone make much better faces mod for everyone anyway?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, I'm thinking about "borrowing" it when I update my Finno-Ugric mod.

 

[IDtenT]

Playing as a HRE count is, imho, not a great game. Either you get snuffed out or you become Emperor and both seem to happen equally frequent. Playing as emperor under the current system just isn't fun either.

My best games have been as Brittany, Georgia or Navarra.

 

[DakaSha]

im really trying to like this without much success although im still thinking its me not knowing wtf im doing.

for one thing it seems like the game doesnt tell me whats going on EVER. Just now some king declared war on me and i get this thing saying i have the right to imprison one of my vassals due to him being a traitor.. so i would guess that the 2 are related.. but how? Can this shit be any more cryptic. Also when i was trying a game as an HRE duke all shit hit the fan and it looked like ww1 was occuring... you think the game told me why? no. I had to fucking guess that some states were all trying to become independent.

Am i missing something or am i gonna have to sift through hundreds of message settings (as with all shitty paradox titles) to get the information i want

 

[Tigranes]

You do want to customise message settings if you feel that way, but:
1) In the case of HRE it's hard not to notice the various wars because you're involved in them, and you get the war icon at the bottom. Each war has a name that's pretty self explanatory (e.g. of Independence), after which you can use tooltips on that screen to figure out exact war goals and war progress.
2) Hard to say on the second one without knowing more and my memory is fuzzy, but I've never had trouble figuring out who fucked me over in what way. (Less clear is understanding who is going to fuck you over soon.)

 

[DakaSha]

You do want to customise message settings if you feel that way, but:
1) In the case of HRE it's hard not to notice the various wars because you're involved in them, and you get the war icon at the bottom. Each war has a name that's pretty self explanatory (e.g. of Independence), after which you can use tooltips on that screen to figure out exact war goals and war progress.
2) Hard to say on the second one without knowing more and my memory is fuzzy, but I've never had trouble figuring out who fucked me over in what way. (Less clear is understanding who is going to fuck you over soon.)

1) Yeah I am starting to understand the war names now but still prefer a message
2) Dunno. A king declared war on me (He got raped) and at the same time i literally only got a message saying i have the right to imprison this vassal. When looking at why i hate him it said hes a traitor but it never told me why/what he did. I can only guess it was some failed plot or something i really dont know.

Anyways these events have made the game more enjoyable now since im starting to understand the game i think. I didnt lock up the traitor simply because i didnt need him rebelling while i was fighting a war vs the other king. I bought some mercs which turned the tide in my favor (although i used the character creator to create an extreme tyrant/military mastermind character.. which explains everybody hating me but has raped any battle so far) and locked up the enemy king.. I also got some bishop who i just ransomed back cause fuck him. King is sitting in the oubliette where he belongs.

So i sat around waiting for my manpower to build up so i can get rid of this traitor asshole but he ended up dying of natural causes and his heir actually likes me. all in all a good 5 years work for a tyrant. gonna see who elses life i can ruin. Prob one of my worthless daughters. (I'm without a male heir so far.. maybe i should imprison my wife for lulz)

 

[sser]

CK II is pretty damn intuitive, by far Paradox's most accessible game, IMO. Just play it more and you will learn how things work out. Remember, things can be inherently complex because you're talking about characters -- from differing nations, ethnicities, religions, families, etc. -- plotting aganist one another. And some of these people are crafty little assholes and others are utterly fucking insane who you can't depend on and some are utterly loyal etc. etc.

For example, perhaps my favorite game so far... as the ruler of Lebreck and a bunch of growing territories, I had married by ultra-badass son to an ultra-badass princess from Denmark. Awesome. He's gonna be king when I die and his children are gonna be demigods and I get my northern front sealed up. But wait, they fucking eloped to Denmark? What the fuck? And now they're declaring war on me for my crown? Jesus Christ. I take to the field and do battle with my goddam son! But wait, the plot thickens... the King of Denmark suspects his own daughter of plotting against him as well and she ends up being imprisoned. My son, in a foreign land with no support, is abandoned by his army and he is cast out of the land and the Danish King sues for peace. Both our courts are a disaster all because we both sought something in common by, ostensibly, uniting our families. We came to one another to pursue alliances and peace, and ended up in the dregs of some terrible war, and we both lost everything because of two greedy, ambitious individuals. This is an extraordinary strategy game worth learning, IMO.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, that kind of thing is what really makes the game. It's like having procedurally generated plots to a grand drama of power and unfortunate accidents.

 

[DakaSha]

well fuck me both my worthless daughters are shitheads. Ones a hunchback and one stutters. God is paying me back for being an extremly generic tyrant

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

God approves of fatherly love (= unfortunate accidents).

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I decided to do a bit of "devblogging" in regards to the work I'll start doing on the Finno-Ugric/pagan mod of mine once Pdox patches Muslims into tolerable levels. Here's some raw materials I'll be using, being the pics for events and decisions:

Search For The Sampo decision-fired "story" event chain for religious, ambitious or less-than-sane rulers.

Characters with bad blood between them might get an event where one of them decides to go ambush the other in the forest.

Mischief In The Pasture event for children with troubled family history.

A call to war event, triggers a Raid war against a random neighbour, or prestige and relations hit.

Special event for Wroth rulers, generally leading to destruction and mayhem all around.

Lehtolapsi event, the event where the ruler chooses whether a bastard child should be drowned in the swamp or not. Traits like Zealous, Kind and Just influence the decision, as does the bastard's parentage. If it is your own bastard, Legitimizing him (only option besides killing, the event also serves as a way of legitimizing pagan bastards) will result in large hit to prestige and piety.

Spread of Christianity choice event. The event will function that from 1150 onwards in pagan nations with a non-Zealous/Sceptical ruler bordering Catholic provinces, pagan characters with high Learning and no traits like Zealous will receive a conversion event that allows them to choose between conversion, gold and Prestige, or Piety and Zealous trait. The event will fire more often for Lithuanians once I get to them, if Kingdom of Lithuanity exists.

Aftermath of the Ambush event.

Death event resulting from other events.

The Wise Old Man childhood event.

Seek Shaman's Guidance decision event.

Forging Prosperity, an event that temporarily boosts tech gain (or grants a level in a tech, haven't decided), fired by having a highly skilled Steward or Shaman.

Another outcome for Seek Shaman's Guidance.

 

[mondblut]

Mischief In The Pasture event for children with troubled family history.

What's that in his hand, an early Nokia?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

A knife that had its blade broken against a rock baked inside the bread lying beside him. This leads to a lot of shit going down, including milking of bears and wolves. Like the other pictures, these are all 19th century romantic nationalist paintings about the Kalevala from the 19th century (Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Robert Wilhelm Ekman are dominating the list here), this like several others about Kullervo.

Currently I'm pondering whether or not to set Mordvins as Tengriists along with the Mansi, and whether or not I should split the Komi between Suomenusko and Tengriism.

 

[JarlFrank]

So, having an antipope is not that good a thing.

In my current game as Bavaria, I appointed an antipope immediately so I can get lots of money. I got lots of money. But the moral authority of the church declined so much due to me having an antipope that heresies began spreading like a wildfire, and now the Holy Roman Emperor is a heretic, the king of France is a heretic, and lots of my vassals are heretics too.

Shit's hilarious.

 

[Cassidy]

So, having an antipope is not that good a thing.

In my current game as Bavaria, I appointed an antipope immediately so I can get lots of money. I got lots of money. But the moral authority of the church declined so much due to me having an antipope that heresies began spreading like a wildfire, and now the Holy Roman Emperor is a heretic, the king of France is a heretic, and lots of my vassals are heretics too.

Shit's hilarious.

You're lucky this isn't Warhammer Fantasy.

 

[DakaSha]

When some of my children turn 6 i get a reminder that they need a guardian. However it seems that others are just randomly being assigned to pricks i want nothing to do with my children... One of them was assigned to me and i didnt know shit about it. Is there some kind of rule here or is it bugging out

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Are you a vassal?

 

[Sranchammer]

Are you a vassal?

I move for no man.

 

[DakaSha]

Are you a vassal?

Hmm no I'm Sultan Homeboy McMuslim.
I'm kinda larping it away as the mother making the choice for me but its kinda getting on my nerves. Its about 1/3 of the kids its happening to.. This is a rather safe statistic seeing that old Homeboy seems to have the labido of a prize bull.

Game is fun btw.. As with all paradox games there is a lot that annoys me but im having great fun murdering anybody with any claims on my territory all while having my people love the shit out of me because im a cheerful old bro. Even got an enemies wife and spymaster to get rid of their emir for me so i dont have to wait 10 years to declare war again.

Right now it seems awfully easy but that may well be because i am in a good position. Gotta usurp two more emirates and ill be sultan of africa.


Btw I won a war and took an enemies last county... Now one of his levies is just chillin in my capital and wont go away.. not only is it annoying but i think i cant get that holdings troops now because they are technically raised. is there any fix to this retarded shit?

 

[Fafnir]

When some of my children turn 6 i get a reminder that they need a guardian. However it seems that others are just randomly being assigned to pricks i want nothing to do with my children... One of them was assigned to me and i didnt know shit about it. Is there some kind of rule here or is it bugging out

If you have sword of Islam your daughters are give a guardian by the AI.

 

[DakaSha]

When some of my children turn 6 i get a reminder that they need a guardian. However it seems that others are just randomly being assigned to pricks i want nothing to do with my children... One of them was assigned to me and i didnt know shit about it. Is there some kind of rule here or is it bugging out

If you have sword of Islam your daughters are give a guardian by the AI.

Oh maybe its been only my daughters.. Strange :-/

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

When some of my children turn 6 i get a reminder that they need a guardian. However it seems that others are just randomly being assigned to pricks i want nothing to do with my children... One of them was assigned to me and i didnt know shit about it. Is there some kind of rule here or is it bugging out

If you have sword of Islam your daughters are give a guardian by the AI.

Oh maybe its been only my daughters.. Strange :-/

You can give them a new Guardian though if you need to free up room for boy-raising projects. Also, I think the AI assigns the daughter if the first Guardian dies or becomes unavailable otherwise, even for a moment.

 

[DakaSha]

Guess thats some shit ill just have to larp. makes some sense i guess.
To bad the AI is as always horrible. Having said that this game isnt really about war as much as it is about the whole intrigue shit so it isnt to bad I hope. I'm hoping internal strife etc keeps me from expanding indefinetly.

My first (ruler designer) ruler died and it seems the game now actually starts. My heir is actually really good (Midas touched and only honorable traits) but the vassals werent to fond of him when he came to power. Nothing to bad but his father had everybody sucking his cock from day one so i didnt have to try and please anybody. Also his father was an even better steward and could hold more land without penalty.

As it stands i ended up giving my fathers one Sheik more land to keep him happy and also gave my half brother and next in line heir some land to hopefully keep him in line. Made him more powerful i guess but he seems to like me. I do have another "of age" half brother who hates me and will prob try some shit. Prob gonna have to have him murdered.

Game is amazing. Lots of stupid shit (like that army STILL being in my capital) but as far as paradox games go its pretty polished for being so new.

edit: I'm also butthurt about betrothing my first daughter with the strongest prince in the vicinity and betrothing that kings first daughter with my son (current character)

My daughter ended up being awesome in every way and they even have the "Lover" trait. Even their portraits show them as both being great looking people.

I on the other hand got this piece of shit wife from them that looks like shit and doesnt even like me to much.

Fuck im a nerd