CKII is released.

[Mortmal]

I am surprised theres not more complaints about that republic dlcs, the way they are designed , they are as plausible as the aztec invasion. The very beggining may be slightly difficult but once you understood the mechanism you are 100% sure to paint the map in your color, it was already possible before but some events could screw your progression, no such things here you WILL win . A feudal lord will have independance war , succession wars all the time, the republic is super stable, you can choose your next heir , give a title, spend a few gold and voila the genius heir with super stat will be doge. Domain size ? No problem my doge has superstats and trade posts doesnt count and are spammable at will.
Once you have landed and upgraded a few trade ports you have an unstoppable war machine able to summon doom stack of mercenaries even the mongol could not compete. Republic is considerably overpowered, no tech requirement for trade posts , free retinue on them, mega improvement and advantages on the palace, i cant think of a single drawback. Oh yes! you have to give money to your family members, i thought they were wasting it all on jewelery , booze and whore, but no the money is stored aside for you to spend next time one of them is doge.Soon it gets boring smashing Huge empires with just retinues.

I wont say a french duke is hard, try a russian high prince and make the kingdom of kwarzim...100% loss versus ilkhanate when invasion start.Ck2 really need some tweaks and balance.

 

[Average Manatee]

Oh yes! you have to give money to your family members, i thought they were wasting it all on jewelery , booze and whore, but no the money is stored aside for you to spend next time one of them is doge.Soon it gets boring smashing Huge empires with just retinues.

Yes, I find that hilarious. It's like the game banking away money for you. Where kings and emperors get rebellions and pretenders on death, Doges get a 1000 gold windfall.

 

[Trash]

Oh yes! you have to give money to your family members, i thought they were wasting it all on jewelery , booze and whore, but no the money is stored aside for you to spend next time one of them is doge.Soon it gets boring smashing Huge empires with just retinues.

Yes, I find that hilarious. It's like the game banking away money for you. Where kings and emperors get rebellions and pretenders on death, Doges get a 1000 gold windfall.

In EU: Rome the AI characters had shitloads of ambitions (marry, get into office, get rich, buy more private property) that either got them richer or cost them money. Not to mention they also spend it on troops and ships during civil wars. This is just shit designing.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well, after having played some myself, I've got a few ideas regarding Republics to add in while I update my Finno-Ugric and pagan stuff (all of these depend on how moddable said features are):

1) Republics get no rank multipliers, and no base number of Demesne, meaning that only Stewardship counts.
2) Increase Trade Post distance cost by some multiplier, remove or severely nerf retinue bonuses from Garrisons in them.
3) Embargo War request will cost some serious fucking money instead of pittance. Maybe see if scaling can be done.
4) Impose levy penalty modifier for Republics, making them more reliant on mercenaries and Feudal allies?
5) Remove access to Holy War CB, Invasion CB, and majority of other CBs for Republics. By contrast make Republics immune to most CBs.


Now what I would find cool would be the ability for Patricain Houses to throw their weight around purely through finance and shipping. It should be desirable for a Feudal lord to have backing of a power merchant family and keep his enemies from gaining equal backing. Similarly, Patrician Houses should be able to arrange for special privileges with Feudal lords, preferably ones where they might be able to swindle them. You know, like this:

 

[Kattze]

It would be great as a merchant family if you can lend money to feudal lords. If the lord couldn't repay the loan, the merchant family can have some kind of CB against the borrower to skim off, say 10% of the revenue until all loans were repaid (with interest of course + costs of the war). Also, a CB allowing a particular family/republic exclusive trading rights within the realm (5 years?), wherein rivals couldn't build tradeposts for a particualr period of time.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Actually that's what I wouldn't want, CBs and wars should be something very rare for Republics. Instead, they could probably use failed obligations in other ways which serve more interesting game functions than "hire a bunch of mercs to kill and pillage."

 

[Average Manatee]

I tried the CK2+ mod to see what it does for balance, and hahaohwow. As far as I can tell if you increase the trade post cost too much the AI characters will respond by simply never building any of them. CK2+ increases the cost to 250 base. I didn't see a single trade post made by ANYONE else and I have built 6 already (and stolen another 3). Presumably the AI spends its money on other shit before banking up enough for a trade post even though the trade post is still an order of magnitude more profitable than anything else in the game.

(CK2+ also fucks up lots of other things so I don't recommend it at the moment)

 

[Renegen]

Playing a French Duke is teh hard.

Which one? I spent most of my time with CK2 playing inside France.

 

[Average Manatee]

Well, after having played some myself, I've got a few ideas regarding Republics to add in while I update my Finno-Ugric and pagan stuff (all of these depend on how moddable said features are):

1) Republics get no rank multipliers, and no base number of Demesne, meaning that only Stewardship counts.

Checking the defines, I'm pretty sure you can't do this. Patricians are Duke-level and Serene Doges are King-level, and the level always comes with the same benefits. You can only add an additional modifier for Patrician title. Though maybe it can be set negative, so -2 would give Patricians 0 demense and Serene Doges 1 demense. Even still, gonna fuck up the AI more than players. It's not like giving cities to vassals really hurts much, you can easily squeeze the max tax out of them.

2) Increase Trade Post distance cost by some multiplier, remove or severely nerf retinue bonuses from Garrisons in them.

Definitely agree on nerfing retinue bonuses. Increasing cost, not unless you can find a way to no mess up the AI. Better to just make trade posts give less base income. I'd cut it from 6 to 2 or 3. That puts the 200-300 per 3 income of an average trade post on par with an average upgrade in terms of profit/investment ratio. Trade zone bonuses will easily add +75-100% to that income but upgrades take the same modifiers so it still stays close.

3) Embargo War request will cost some serious fucking money instead of pittance. Maybe see if scaling can be done.

That will just make it a way for rich republics (players) to wipe the floor with non-rich republics (stupid AIs) and take all of their shit . I'd rather see if there would be some way to automatically call for help from friendly nobles akin to holy wars. Then you could make Embargo War more of a relations-based request. Escalating conflicts is one of the few ways in CK2 to take a player by surprise and hurt them, and anything that can actually endanger a player is good.

4) Impose levy penalty modifier for Republics, making them more reliant on mercenaries and Feudal allies?

Dunno. Mercs are pretty much broken whenever they are usable. Is it possible to simply give a global morale penalty or something to Republics?

5) Remove access to Holy War CB, Invasion CB, and majority of other CBs for Republics. By contrast make Republics immune to most CBs.

Don't like the idea of removing them. Simply making republics weak enough that aggressive combat isn't a good idea should be a better idea. Definite NO to making them immune to any CBs, your enemies shouldn't give a shit whether you are a noble or not.

 

[Destroid]

Playing a French Duke is teh hard.

Which one? I spent most of my time with CK2 playing inside France.

I was playing the Duke of Aquitaine, first gavelkind inheritance shrank my domain considerably, then a series of pretenders ran a train on my holdings, at last the Emperor of the HRE was able to take it from me, leaving me as a Count with a single castle and no vassals. There's certainly no shortage of plotting inside France though. I'm playing as some Russians now (formed Kingdom of Rus).

 

[Kattze]

Actually that's what I wouldn't want, CBs and wars should be something very rare for Republics. Instead, they could probably use failed obligations in other ways which serve more interesting game functions than "hire a bunch of mercs to kill and pillage."

Yeah, it would be ideal if you can do all this jewery without a need for war but as of now the republics didn't quite mesh well with the game's focus on familial diplomacy.

Also, an idea to nerf republics:
Would it be possible to mod events wherein mercenaries can ask for pay-raises or share of the loot (from capture of holdings) depending on the hirer's wealth?

Playing a French Duke is teh hard.

Which one? I spent most of my time with CK2 playing inside France.

I was playing the Duke of Aquitaine, first gavelkind inheritance shrank my domain considerably, then a series of pretenders ran a train on my holdings, at last the Emperor of the HRE was able to take it from me, leaving me as a Count with a single castle and no vassals. There's certainly no shortage of plotting inside France though. I'm playing as some Russians now (formed Kingdom of Rus).

That's the beauty of playing in France though. France is not too weak where you can be threatened from the outside but not too strong as too limit your expansion within or outside the realm (especially after one of their many civil wars). You can take hold of opportunities as they arise and can then just look elsewhere if you fail.

In my 1.08 game as Karlings (County of Vermadois - Duchy of Burgundy), I had married my ruler with the daughter (of the duke of Provence) turned duchess (after demolishing her siblings and the duke of course). My then plan is to form the Kingdom of Burgundy either as independent or as vassal of the HRE. However, my ruler died after being injured in a crusade (which I had joined just to get the Crusader trait) and my 7-year old son ended up inheriting the counties/duchy. Since I had elective, I had chosen my younger brother (with lisp) as my heir, my vassals though thought otherwise and overwhelmingly voted for one of my blood cousins. Afterwards, my scheming cousin assassinated the young duke and I ended up playing the said cousin while the lispy brother was smuggled(?) to his mother's court in Provence.

Foiled in Provence, I ended up attacking some small sheikhdoms in Iberia as my liege, the king of France was also expanding in that direction. Afterwards, I married one of the daughters of the Jimena King of Aragon/Navarre, assassinated the Jimena and become King. After a long series of wars where I lost most of my French possessions, gaining Spanish ones while fighting my vassals (for lower crown authority and shilling for pretenders), I finally become Emperor of Hispania (Castillian culture), with blood relatives in Duchy of Provence (now Occitans) and duchy of Auvergne (which remained Frankish).

 

[Renegen]

Playing a French Duke is teh hard.

Which one? I spent most of my time with CK2 playing inside France.

I was playing the Duke of Aquitaine, first gavelkind inheritance shrank my domain considerably, then a series of pretenders ran a train on my holdings, at last the Emperor of the HRE was able to take it from me, leaving me as a Count with a single castle and no vassals. There's certainly no shortage of plotting inside France though. I'm playing as some Russians now (formed Kingdom of Rus).

Aquitaine is the strongest region in France, no wonder it splits off in 3 or so duchies it's so strong it can even take on the king fairly early on. You're still one of the strongest dukes even if you hold only 1 duchy and do have the ability to win over your pretenders and rebuild Aquitaine. Yeah, the plotting in France is fun, it has a few unstable duchies like Aquitaine and a few stable large ones and a few insignificant ones. Take your pick for the type of game you want.

 

[Cassidy]

Playing a French Duke is teh hard.

Which one? I spent most of my time with CK2 playing inside France.

I was playing the Duke of Aquitaine, first gavelkind inheritance shrank my domain considerably, then a series of pretenders ran a train on my holdings, at last the Emperor of the HRE was able to take it from me, leaving me as a Count with a single castle and no vassals. There's certainly no shortage of plotting inside France though. I'm playing as some Russians now (formed Kingdom of Rus).

You should try starting as the Count of Rouergue.

It is insanely difficult to get farther than the starting position, but if you play the cards right, you can enter history as one of the heroes of the Reconquista and forge an Occitania-Aragon Commonwealth.

 

[Renegen]

The weakest count I started off so far in France was the count of Boulogne which I turned into the duchy of Flanders and then used cunning opportunism to create the kingdom of Frisia, break free of France, enlarge it by taking advantage of HRE civil wars, permanently weakening the HRE so I to not get bumrushed and then permanently weakening France and taking it apart for easy picking. Wasn't as easy as it sounded, I tried to achieve total independence quite early. Ironman of course.

There's nothing more satisfying than starting as a count and becoming King with minimal amounts of cheese in between.

 

[Destroid]

The trouble I find with trying to be underhanded as a small realm is getting the gold to fund the gifts for plots or outright assassinations.

 

[Malakal]

In France I played the Lusignians (THE crusader kings) who start as counts. After I got my second county it started snowballing so I wouldnt say it was hard. As long as crown authority allows for inter vassal war you can expand and in the west you are rather safe (dont have Aztecs). Granted I did demolish the kingdom with my usurpation war (plot for elective -> civil war -> get elected -> reclaim all that was lost during the civil war which was 70% of the kingdom).

As for nerfing the republics: how about adding technology limits on trade post number and distance? Can it be done? What republics need is loads of events costing gold so they dont hoard it and also less lucrative trading posts that can easily be destroyed.

 

[Trash]

(CK2+ also fucks up lots of other things so I don't recommend it at the moment)

Wiz has a shitload of great ideas in his mod. However since he discovered multiplayer he's gone full retard with the whole 'balancing'. Fucking shame since I loved the earlier, less intrusive and tarded, versions of his mod*.

Plus he's now given a job by Paradox so I wouldn't count on him doing really a lot more with CK2plus. Something all his cheering fans don't really seem to realise.

*Not to mention the great work he did with EU: Rome.

 

[Borelli]

Selecting a count/duke in de jure kingdom of Burgundy and trying to form it is always fun. For added challenge tell HRE to piss off once you are the king.

*Not to mention the great work he did with EU: Rome.

Tell me more. EU:Rome is shit but has potential so any improvement to that is welcome.

 

[IDtenT]

Selecting a count/duke in de jure kingdom of Burgundy and trying to form it is always fun. For added challenge tell HRE to piss off once you are the king.

Von Hapsburg is a favourite of mine to play.

 

[Trash]

Paradox has approached Tcancer for an interview. Or at least one of their pr flunkies did. So, now that we've probably got them cornered what do you want to ask them? CKII, The Republic, DLC as a business strategy, Paradox's future, New projects, modding and making the transition from dev to publisher are some of the things that interest me. Help me come up with some more.

 

[IDtenT]

Ask them on the success of the Aztec Invasion DLC and how it might have changed their future plans.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Paradox has approached Tcancer for an interview. Or at least one of their pr flunkies did. So, now that we've probably got them cornered what do you want to ask them? CKII, The Republic, DLC as a business strategy, Paradox's future, New projects, modding and making the transition from dev to publisher are some of the things that interest me. Help me come up with some more.

Question 1: Is the pagan DLC coming?
Question 2: PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE PERKELE

 

[hoverdog]

On a some what related note I recently found out that it was paradox that developed Svea Rike as well as hold the rights to the pnp rpg Drakar och Demoner, which supposedly is the most popular such game system in Sweden.

are they planning to use those rights in any way? make a crpg, for example?

​

 

[Destroid]

Ask for more info about this scifi/completely fictional title they are rumoured to be working on. Or about why they continue to increase the amount of fiction in their games. Perhaps that has been covered in other interviews though, can't say I've ever read one from a Paradox person.

 

[Irenaeus]

Ask them how the success from moving further away from historicity has changed the marketing of their games and how it has affected future projects.

 

[Konjad]

Ask them about how long is CK2 going to be supported - if they will continue to release patches and DLCs after release of EU IV or will they completely focus on EU IV.