Crusader Kings or Crusader Kings 2?

[Saxon1974]

I have played a bit of CK2 but never the original game and its cheap on GOG. Those who have played both, any reason to play CK over CK2?

 

[Miner Arobar]

Not that much. CK1 is simpler (advisors don't do jobs for you, no barony tier vassals, no hunting/feasting, relations are mutual/symmetrical), but it does have a tendency to throw curveballs at you. Somehow in CKII I've never felt I had any difficulty keeping my vassals from backstabbing me, but not so in CKI. Realm stability (which you don't have any control over - no stabbing pigs like in EU:Rome) is another CKI think which is a headache when it goes below zero. A drawback is that realms tend to be all over the place after a while in CKI, though the most blatant problems (muslims always conquering England) can be modded out. Why not give it a try?

 

[vonAchdorf]

It has a better looking map and better portraits. And it's not as bloated as CK2 became. I always like the eurocentric scope of CK compared to EU, but that's all but lost in CK2 after the latest expansions. It was my favorite Paradox game for like a decade.

 

[Miner Arobar]

Agreed here. I can actually remember what a lot of CKI characters looked like, not so with CKII's more realistic but also more forgettable characters. And CKII's map, while pretty, messes up terribly here and there - mountain ranges look horrible, and most of Georgia is suddenly north of the Caucasus - not so in CKI's map, which is quite stylish (and contains the Paradox head offices!).

 

[Serious_Business]

Doubt it. The first one was pretty broken.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Doubt it. The first one was pretty broken.

The second is not?

 

[Miner Arobar]

Doubt it. The first one was pretty broken.

Most of the annoying issues were fixed with Deus Vult beta patch, though - and some more (e.g. England becoming a patchwork of Sheikdoms) by mods (Deus Vult Improvement Pack). With those, it's perfectly playable.

 

[rado907]

CK1 was great but I liked CK2 better. I get the impression that CK2 is Paradox's most successful title - there's a reason for that.

 

[Serious_Business]

The second is not?

Haven't played it much, but I'd say so. From my perspective, it is a better game. No situation where you'd have lords at the end of the world proposing to become your vassal, at least.

Most of the annoying issues were fixed with Deus Vult beta patch, though - and some more (e.g. England becoming a patchwork of Sheikdoms) by mods (Deus Vult Improvement Pack). With those, it's perfectly playable.

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's not playable. Spent a good numbers of hours on it, didn't regret it. However I'm not sure how you could favor it compared to the second. Ironically I still played the first more than the second, but I'd say it's because I had pretty much seen what the concept had to offer.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Crusader Kings

 

[vonAchdorf]

I don't say that CK2 is a bad game, far from it, though I think, with its recent expansions, it became a bit muddled and lost focus. And like Miner said:

I can actually remember what a lot of CKI characters looked like, not so with CKII's more realistic but also more forgettable characters.

That's just a detail, but it's part of why I have fonder memories of CK1, even though I also played CK2 for hundreds of hours.

 

[Irenaeus II]

CK2 is a bad game

 

[MilesBeyond]

CK2 is almost categorically better but CK1 is still fun enough to be worth purchasing.

 

[Cassidy]

If you can find a torrent a way to downgrade Crusader Kings II to the last version Trash 's Memento Mori mod was compatible with (2.04) , it is worth it. I don't think it's coincidence the game began to become overbloated shit shortly after(2 patches) its Gamersgate DRM-free version stopped being updated and it became Steam-exclusive.

IMO the latest version of Crusader Kings II, without mods, is definitively inferior to the first one, specially in the near complete lack challenge, shitty performance, and in having realistic Medieval child mortality rates. Way of Cuckolding is a worthless DLC and Horse Lords also is pretty pointless.

 

[vonAchdorf]

If you can find a torrent a way to downgrade Crusader Kings II to the last version Trash 's Memento Mori mod was compatible with (2.04) , it is worth it. I don't think it's coincidence the game began to become overbloated shit shortly after(2 patches) its Gamersgate version stopped being updated and it became Steam-exclusive.

Just a PSA: You can select 2.04. in Steam in the Beta settings if you want to play with that version.

 

[Saxon1974]

Hmm OK I'll just stick with CK2 since I already own it. Thanks for the responses!

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Most of the annoying issues were fixed with Deus Vult beta patch, though - and some more (e.g. England becoming a patchwork of Sheikdoms) by mods (Deus Vult Improvement Pack). With those, it's perfectly playable.

adds to realism though

 

[wwsd]

Try CK1, since you're going to play CK2 anyway. CK1's charms are a bit different. There is far more randomness, and with things like Realm Duress, stability, etc. you may have actual difficulties consolidating a kingdom.

 

[Trash]

Crusader Kings is a strategy game mixed with a large dynasty management aspect. Together with the Deus Vult Improvement Pack it's a stable and pretty hardcore game in which you can never feel too safe. The goal is to make it through the ages and bring your bloodline to great heights. Not simply paint the map. CK2 ditched a lot of that and went for the same old mappainting formula that all Paradox games seem to go for.

 

[zool]

I've never had time to try CK2 but I saw a lot of screenshots and videos and I can say that CK graphics look much better to me than CK2 with its ugly 3D map and ugly faces. I can't talk about the gameplay obviously, CK2 looks like it offers a lot more options that I think were missing from CK (betrothal, imprisonment, ...) but based on a lot of comments I've seen here, CK2 seems to have lost CK's magic.

 

[Anthedon]

If you play CKII pick a house from central/western Europe. The farther you get away from these locations the less sense the systems of the game make.

And you'll need a supercomputer if you want to run any of the newer versions. Thanks to all the map extensions and feature bloat the game slows to a crawl after a while.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I've never had time to try CK2 but I saw a lot of screenshots and videos and I can say that CK graphics look much better to me than CK2 with its ugly 3D map and ugly faces.

CK2's map is definately better looking (like it's not even a contest, the CK1 map was kind of ugly even when it was new) and more capable of presenting information without relying on overlays.

As for the faces... Well, I'd say it varies. CK1 had a pretty limited number of combinations (on the subject of "which CK1 portrait you remember", I always remember this one Caesar nose it had...), but when it comes to the basic facegen CK1 wins solely because the default westerngfx of CK2 tends to create solely terrifying mongoloids. Thankfully, it's fairly easy to mod once you get the hang of how the portrait files work and spent dorraa for some of the better face DLCs assets you can do fairly good combinations once you finally snap and can't take the goddamn westerngfx even one second more (do note that prior to its redux the mediterranean gfx was even worse than westerngfx and basic muslimgfx):

Spoiler

What actually surprises me more is that I don't think anyone's modded a replica of the CK1 portrait system, since it should be perfectly doable and not too hard if you can extract and convert the old portrait assets.

 

[Whisky]

CK1 was great until CK2 was released. While CK1 throws more curveballs it is incredibly broken even with the last patches and Deus Vult and you're honestly lucky to get through one generation before you give up after a nasty crash (Which it will crash a lot).

I really wouldn't bother; the best part of CK1 is this song:

 

[LizardWizard]

^^ That song triggers me hard. CK2 box art is also pure decline in comparison

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X9I/KpXSUx1lJIOg7igEqt6Wbhc3ilWGmzpQU8Ype5HCU41Zx6ijmf6CT5nJPx3qIAF3BGRVlBVYrk0xestqZCO340k+Ief0rSITritOgpUOQUkYoiWAmQnSAPF5USpSlS15UTv5mpSVDp2SW+PHtx7stzun+xBFNxelqSBGww2kcNpBP1OKr0jYHHr/FN4IAZbIG+a0FbBJhjd2hlf4rygpQwdWRvUl51SIKVw5wdAAGkEbfpRdzQn2fOkZHwqvNkh8b8mqyVCpuxalLrCSpawXFnlO5FFxpTjbgOokfHeo5AHc486mg+6ailLbsaVV0XLpi4jvBnGUuKAIFObnCbYjuqISpba8pQM+InO1VGx7T2sbeJP81eJm8xQO//AI7h+ummw4YylvPlohlm1HVCPQ58vgDW65cJ7ivmayva9v2cJ//Z

 

[Nahel]

Crusader Kings 2 was a great game when it came out. But it just became worse and worse. Old gods, while broken was actually the last fun dlc. Now i can't really advocate the purchase unless you got real friends to play with. It is cool in multiplayer. Some mods are also fun.