CKII is released.

[Zero Credibility]

Ok, does anyone know why was shattered retreat added to this game? Never mind how (or not) realistic or historical it is, this shit is like pure anti-fun. Me, a medium size kingdom declare a war on my bigger neighbor kingdom for my de jure county. One fricking county. I defeat his full combined levies, siege all 4 holdings in the target county, again defeat his full combined levies that have regenerated while I was sieging. War is over, right? Wrong - war score is not even 50% yet. I then spend next 5 years playing ping-pong with his armies across his entire kingdom.

Shattered retreat + reduced casualties + reduced war score from battles turned the war into a tedious nightmare. If the goal of these changes was to limit expansion, mission accomplished. I never want to go through that again. Oh, and did no one test how this crap affects adventurers? The hapless bastards come at you, lose and retreat their mostly intact army across half the europe, then come back and try again. And again and again until war score finally hits 100%. Fuck this shit.

 

[Talby]

That and the changes to the council seem dumb as well. Now I have to fill my staff with incompetent vassals because they'll get butthurt if they're not made the chancellor despite having a diplomacy of 2.

 

[IDtenT]

Disagree. Council changes are much welcomed.

 

[Ellef]

Council changes are basically the only good thing to come from the patch, everything else is somewhere between half-baked and moronic.

 

[Shadenuat]

The designer of CK+ mod worked on Council, btw, hired by Paradox.

 

[Beastro]

Edit: I googled "Crusader Kings 2 seduction" just for fun, and the first link I clicked was a thread on the official forum, where the first response to a complaint was, "Welcome to the Middle Ages". I wish I could pop out of that guy's screen and give him a post-natal abortion. How can anyone be so retarded to think that WoL seduction is literally an accurate representation of the medieval court?

One of the few consolations I have about modern views of the past is that our idiots will get the same treatment in time.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

So now that I've had a chance to deal with some territory near the steppe and have had a game running for a while it's pretty obvious that shattered retreat is hilariously broken. Clan armies don't seem to die off when the nomad horde loses it's land, that's not too much of a problem by itself, but they can never ever seem to be defeated. With shattered retreat and no land they seem to wander the world for a year in retreat after defeat and get all their troops back. Since they don't seem to be in a war with anyone the steppe seems to fill up with this crappy little clan armies over time that never go away. Adventurer armies also seem to act the same way with hosts randomly raiding me from somewhere and then going on a long walk when I defeat them. Gonna see if I can stick it out until the mongols arrive to see if the aggression changes actually work in a game that's been going a bit and they have to deal with dozens of little raider armies constantly retreating onto their turf and attacking them.

 

[Turrul]

The designer of CK+ mod worked on Council, btw, hired by Paradox.

So, the only nice addition of 2.5 is outsourced to a modder?

Tells a lot about the situation going on with CK2 actually.

 

[Meaning of Karma]

Within the course of my first character's lifetime I started as the count of Orleans, got fucked over by dirtbag Charlemagne when he created the duchy and handed it to someone else (twice), and then died at the ripe old age of 71 after the last of three campaigns to consolidate all the de jure counties under my rule.

Now the problem I'm having as my mouthbreathing son is that I seem to have no way to get the jackass duke (whom I threw out of France proper) to give me his fucking title. Is there literally no way to just take it? He's sitting over in southern Germany being a cock, and I can't get the Pope to back me because he likes him by 5 points. Is there just nothing I can do?

EDIT: Apparently after the King transferred my vassalage to this asshat a plot became available to fabricate a claim on the duchy. Because that's not convoluted as fuck.

 

[Whisky]

The designer of CK+ mod worked on Council, btw, hired by Paradox.

So, the only nice addition of 2.5 is outsourced to a modder?

Tells a lot about the situation going on with CK2 actually.

I think that's the only good thing to come from them hiring a modder, that I recall.

Never forget the madness that was Magna Mundi.

 

[Beastro]

Within the course of my first character's lifetime I started as the count of Orleans, got fucked over by dirtbag Charlemagne when he created the duchy and handed it to someone else (twice), and then died at the ripe old age of 71 after the last of three campaigns to consolidate all the de jure counties under my rule.

Now the problem I'm having as my mouthbreathing son is that I seem to have no way to get the jackass duke (whom I threw out of France proper) to give me his fucking title. Is there literally no way to just take it? He's sitting over in southern Germany being a cock, and I can't get the Pope to back me because he likes him by 5 points. Is there just nothing I can do?

EDIT: Apparently after the King transferred my vassalage to this asshat a plot became available to fabricate a claim on the duchy. Because that's not convoluted as fuck.

Games trained you too much to be impatient.

Give it time, you'll get the title if you wait and this is a game where it's the most interesting when you're failing. Unfortunately it doesn't let you do that nearly enough.

 

[LizardWizard]

The designer of CK+ mod worked on Council, btw, hired by Paradox.

So, the only nice addition of 2.5 is outsourced to a modder?

Tells a lot about the situation going on with CK2 actually.

The guy that originally made CK2+ was project lead on Eu4 for like a year. Ironically, the game was a pile of garbage before he came on board.

Also, CK2+ is a good mod btw and their faction system should have been implemented into the main game a long time ago.

 

[Average Manatee]

The designer of CK+ mod worked on Council, btw, hired by Paradox.

So, the only nice addition of 2.5 is outsourced to a modder?

Tells a lot about the situation going on with CK2 actually.

I think that's the only good thing to come from them hiring a modder, that I recall.

Never forget the madness that was Magna Mundi.

Modders made For the Glory and the HoI2 expansions. Paradox just had bad luck with both Magna Mundi and East vs West (though at this point it looks like finishing East vs. West would have been a way better idea than the endlessly delayed and casualized HoI4).

Though of course that's Paradox contracting a mod group to make a game while Wiz is actually part of the Paradox dev team.

 

[Whisky]

Fair enough, I guess the really crazy examples just stick out.

Though as far as I know, the East vs West team didn't go insane like MM's did. At least, they didn't start claiming they owned Paradox's engine.

 

[Average Manatee]

No, but from Paradox's perspective the craziness isn't relevant, all that matters is whether the project paid them money back.

 

[LizardWizard]

In the case of Ubik, I believe he was certifiably crazy irl. Like his family sent him to a mental institution.

 

[Alienman]

Is anyone still there from the first Europe Universalis game? I loved that game in LAN

 

[Spectacle]

So this is apparently possible to do without any mods:

Whole story here:
http://imgur.com/a/K1utf

 

[Erzherzog]

There's a link to a mod in the first paragraph though.

 

[Talby]

I knew I should have bought Horse Lords when it was on sale.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

There's a link to a mod in the first paragraph though.

That's the savefile, not a mod.

 

[Erzherzog]

There's a link to a mod in the first paragraph though.

That's the savefile, not a mod.

Oh jesus, I really didn't want to believe.

 

[Villagkouras]

I'm very interested in EU 4 and CK 2, but I have not any experience into this kind of games. None.

So, is there any site/blog /channel whatever that is worthwhile in explaining the core mechanics of these games? No walkthroughs, but a bit better explanation than the tutorial that I found rather confusing?

Also, which is more noob friendly EU or CK? Thanks

 

[Turrul]

I'm very interested in EU 4 and CK 2, but I have not any experience into this kind of games. None.

So, is there any site/blog /channel whatever that is worthwhile in explaining the core mechanics of these games? No walkthroughs, but a bit better explanation than the tutorial that I found rather confusing?

Also, which is more noob friendly EU or CK? Thanks

I suppose some LP videos could help but CK 2 is not hard to learn by yourself, just read those wiki pages for beginners and jump in.

In terms of startdate, I advise something between 1066 and 1081. Keep away from 867 until you learn the game, it's too hectic - and 769 is pretty much the shitty version of 867-.

For your first game, try a Catholic vassal under a big kingdom/empire or some small realm in Ireland. After you learn the interface and the mechanics somewhat, try an Iberian Catholic King. It's the perfect place to learn almost every mechanic about alliance, religion and intrigue.

 

[Zero Credibility]

There's some very good LPs right here on the dex, especially the one with the viking revival (warning - it's heavily dated as far as game mechanics go by now). But yeah, the game is not hard to pick up. I would recommend starting small but also independent. Get a handle on basics (dealing with your own vassals, war, family, etc.) before dealing with extra complications of having a liege to worry about. Not to mention there's a couple of trap options that can get you a quick game over because liege revoked your land because you hold his de jure capital or is just badly under demesne limit and you can't resist him.

Noob island (also known as Ireland) in 1066 is my recommendation, there's a duke there with one county and one count vassal - perfect for learning. Or count of Dublin, he soon gets another county from his father. The best part of Ireland in 1066 is that everyone around you is weak, so you are not likely to have wars declared on you and you can take out your neighbours one at a time. Ireland in 867 is a different matter altogether.