So, is the new expansion at all playable yet? Doesn't sound like it. I can only concur with those who say that Paradox lost focus. So what we get now is just plain old-fashioned bullshit. But this thread has convinced me to boot up CK1 again just for old time's sake.
The game is also pretty much unplayable with Way of Life unless you disable sedecution and intrigue focuses, btw.
Well, you can play it without disabling it, but then your dinasty will be continued by bastards of the dozens of men who seduced your character's wife and any random vassal count will be able to play evil mastermind and imprison/castrate/assassinate everyone easily.
It's not as bad as it was in earlier versions. I remember trying it with the GoT mod, only to have Edmure and Catelyn Tully start an incestuous relationship, creating bastards. Well, to be fair, I guess that's not unique to that particular universe, but it still gave me a good laugh. Now, it doesn't seem to happen as much, but you still sometimes get PUA rulers going quite overboard with seduction.
I actually quite like the idea of "ways of life" to add a bit more meat to your characters' life stories. It does something similar the earlier "improve attribute" ambitions. But what's annoying is that it often seems disconnected to your character's actual attributes and traits and other existing mechanics. E.g. you don't have to be at all lustful to choose the seduction focus, and there are still random events to sleep with courtiers even if you don't have the focus. So it's just not consistent, and that's very unsatisfying.
The thing about CBs and conquests is bothersome as well, but I wonder if it will ever be possible to have a mechanic that realistically represents every possibility (just like it's difficult to accurately represent "feudalism" in all the lands in the game). Some great conquerors really did blob all over the world, while others had to play by the rules. In CK2, capturing the enemy ruler automatically gives you a 100% war score that allows you to enforce whatever you were demanding, but in real life, this didn't always work out. During the Wars of the Roses, Richard of York repeatedly captured Henry VI, and yet the nobility kept denying him the throne, and he had to settle for being Lord Protector and heir (besides, killing Henry would only have triggered the inheritance of Edward of Westminster). In CK2, he would have been able to seize the crown, and the response of the nobility to that would only depend on an abstract "opinion score". Realistically, grabbing a kingdom title in this fashion should trigger an instant rebellion by all the lords who fought for the previous king, and with their armies and holdings still untouched, the situation would be reversed quickly.
