CKII is released.

[Kattze]

Dev Diary 6: Rebels/adventurers

 

[Spectacle]

Paradox seems to be promoting the Game of Thrones mod pretty heavily for a mod. I wonder if that could land them in trouble with the IP owners? I'm assuming the mod is unlicensed.

 

[Commissar Draco]

I can't help but think of the Joker from the Batman movie while playing an Arab nation, particularly one from shithole North Africa. Conquer Tunisia/Algiers and nobody panics, nobody does anything because it's all part of the plan. But swoop in and conquer Greece and Thrace, well then everybody loses their minds! Nothing like having the entire European continent bringing 200,000 swinging dicks to Constantinople -- rather, Maghrebople. One man in Rome has the power to get half a million testicles on the move. No wonder the Papacy has a strong vein of sexual perversion feeding blood to its cocklust for all things Roman. Strangely, nobody bats an eye if I land 20,000 mercenaries on Rome's backdoorstep and invite myself in sans-lube. All the whores just watch their pimp get slapped around before calling it a day after, oh, fifteen years or so.

ITZ cause you squatting on ancient Roman Lands of Africa Proconsularis and Exarhate of Carthagina... Remove all Faifali from premises!
Thanks for the fix Trash You're for a LIBR@L.

 

[Borelli]

The Prince and the Thane is very slow for me, no matter what speed i set it is always speed 2 or 3 while vanilla runs smoothly. Any way to improve on this?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Mordvin, Samoyed

Excellent, saves me a shitload of trouble.

Of course, they'll probably fuck up the namefiles in a catastrophic manner.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

I dunno bros, my CK2 tolerance has reached a limit. Dunno if I'll buy/pirate Old Gods. I keep replaying DH and Vicky 1 and 2 but kings has gotten beyond boring. Republics are too broken and op to offer fun after the first playthrough, islam becomes too tedious and blobbing as the roman empires is overdone.

Modding HOI3 and fantasizing about proxy wars in EvW is the only grand strat I can handle now.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

My Paradox playing is pretty cyclical too. Right now I'm playing only Vicky 2, but eventually I'll exhaust the options I find fun, and if that's before OG I'll probably do something drastic in HoI3 like fascist South Africa (incidentally, there was a HUGE bug in Black Ice for Japan and Soviets with the enforced peace between them, as it would cause serious shit to go down if Germany was invading too). EU3 fails to hold my interest completely these days. Before the current cycle I was playing Rome, bringing the world some Hellen glory as Seleucids.

 

[Mortmal]

My Paradox playing is pretty cyclical too. Right now I'm playing only Vicky 2, but eventually I'll exhaust the options I find fun, and if that's before OG I'll probably do something drastic in HoI3 like fascist South Africa (incidentally, there was a HUGE bug in Black Ice for Japan and Soviets with the enforced peace between them, as it would cause serious shit to go down if Germany was invading too). EU3 fails to hold my interest completely these days. Before the current cycle I was playing Rome, bringing the world some Hellen glory as Seleucids.

Try forming byzantine empire in victoria 2 if you are exhausting the fun options , yes its included but the option dont show up until you get all the new core after megali idea and superpower status.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

My Paradox playing is pretty cyclical too. Right now I'm playing only Vicky 2, but eventually I'll exhaust the options I find fun, and if that's before OG I'll probably do something drastic in HoI3 like fascist South Africa (incidentally, there was a HUGE bug in Black Ice for Japan and Soviets with the enforced peace between them, as it would cause serious shit to go down if Germany was invading too). EU3 fails to hold my interest completely these days. Before the current cycle I was playing Rome, bringing the world some Hellen glory as Seleucids.

Try forming byzantine empire in victoria 2 if you are exhausting the fun options , yes its included but the option dont show up until you get all the new core after megali idea and superpower status.

Actually I generally just keep being Greece and continue removing Kebab. I find the idea of being "Byzantine Empire" in the 19th century prepostrous. I haven't done a Greece campaign in a while, seems like a good idea now that South Africa campaign is drawing to a close.

Or I'll just do something lulzy like cheat like a motherfucker and create an Estonian Empire.

 

[Mortmal]

well mussollini was considering himself as a roman emperor , so in an alternate history, a fascist evil powermongering greece, why not . Remember to make germany your bitch as well, true alternate history at its best.It xill be a really tough challenge although.

 

[Tigranes]

I played CK2 to death at release then had a huge break - I still haven't played as Republics or Islam, though I have both DLCs. Getting all the DLC & mod progress in the meantime all in one wave makes things pretty interesting, and I'm sure Old Gods will help.

The thing about CK2 is that it does ultimately boil down to look for characters with the right distribution of numbers on a list then click a single button for a % success. I mean, sure, all Paradox games are spreadsheet games, but what I always thought would be great is, borrowing a little from ROTK, key events - s uch as the election of the Holy Roman Emperor, the distribution of a Crusade spoils, the end of a mluti-faction war, or a Gavelkind succession, should launch a separate negotiation window. E.g. right now Gavelkind distribution is as far as I can tell random, or at least not left up to the player at all, but what should happen is when the King dies the game pauses and there is a window where as the heir, you speak with the other successors and your own retinue and negotiate a distribution that suits everyone, kind of like a complex version of EU3's peace window with war scores. With even options to Renegade it up and declare war or attempt assassination during the conclave-like meeting. I imagine something like this is very hard for modders to do and that's why mods with more complicated actions end up resorting to a barrage of Event notifications.

Anyway, yeah. Five years in my Latin Emperor owns a total of five freaking counties, while his younger bro owns all of Sicily, Epirus, Samos, Antioch and half of Thrace. Abdicating to him is probably the most powergamey but not very realistic, so I'm going to larp a beleaguered emperor who launches plot after plot.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

well mussollini was considering himself as a roman emperor , so in an alternate history, a fascist evil powermongering greece, why not . Remember to make germany your bitch as well, true alternate history at its best.It xill be a really tough challenge although.

Actually there seem to be many ways to prevent Germans from ever becoming a problem. For example, in my Scandinavia campaign I established a stranglehold on Hannover, and conquered around the Kiel. These two factors put any hopes of German unification to rest (preventing North German Federation is the pivotal task). Italy is much easier to keep under the bootheel.

 

[Mortmal]

well mussollini was considering himself as a roman emperor , so in an alternate history, a fascist evil powermongering greece, why not . Remember to make germany your bitch as well, true alternate history at its best.It xill be a really tough challenge although.

Actually there seem to be many ways to prevent Germans from ever becoming a problem. For example, in my Scandinavia campaign I established a stranglehold on Hannover, and conquered around the Kiel. These two factors put any hopes of German unification to rest (preventing North German Federation is the pivotal task). Italy is much easier to keep under the bootheel.

yes thats the way to do it to cripple them , my problem with greece is getting a strong industry wich is mandatory for the superpower status , I got all the cores rather easily, colonies in africa is a piece of cake either, but the industry no it wont take up, ive read the guides but i am probably missing something still. Its quite odd on victoria 2 is either too easy or too hard. Easiest for me was china with an overabundance of everything, too easy to steamroll everything once you westernized.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, the thing China has is that they've got prepostrous RGO base, and enough manpower to simply overwhelm any opponent.

 

[Tigranes]

Well, that turned out pretty well.

Following the death of the elder Baudoin then his first son Baudoin, the treacherous arbitrary laws of Gavelkind conspired to hand William, the second son, three counties in Thrace, Dyracchion and the Aegean isles, then Alexander, the youngest son, everything else - German counties, Sicily, Epirus, Samos, Antioch, a small chunk of Anatolia. Granting independence would mean giving away far too much of the empire. William spent a few years plotting everything - treason, claiming he is a bastard, assassination, but nothing to reach critical mass even after murdering his spymaster. Ultimately Alexander came of age, refused to swear fealty and declared a war of independence. William was doing OK but knew he didn't have the forces to subjugate Alexander - then, at the tender age of 20, died of seemingly natural causes. I suspect a skilled assassin.

Now Alexander, just 17, controls the expanded Latin Empire. I've already given away the German counties and will give Antioch to the pope; hopefully this will pave the way for a Papal Coronation to cement his rule. Sicily is actually easier as Alexander, growing up there, is now Neapolitan in culture and the empire is of course Catholic. The Latins may thus achieve what the Byzantines always dreamed of.

 

[RK47]

Ah, lost the cultural retinue - Frankish knights.
So you abdicated and switched characters or what?
Also, what's the best way to protect your vassal king from revolts without resorting to high crown authority?
Right now the vassal king of Hungary is 2 years old and is facing a four front war vs his vassals. I wish I could help out, but I can only send gold.

 

[Tigranes]

No, I didn't want to abdicate as it felt a bit cheaty. I was in control of William and at war with Alexander, then William died (I will never know if it really was innocent). Alexander is doing pretty well keeping the empire together, the dukes are always unhappy but never a concerted effort. Problem is he's popping out boys one after another and if he dies before half his kids do it will be an even worse Gavelkind. Turkey has been a fractured mess for a decade and he'd like to go on some Muslim-stomping, but I think it's TPATT that makes diseases so common and so deadly. You sit there sieging a city then suddenly Typhus comes in and you get 50% attrition, before you can move anyone out you've lost five thousand men. It's enough to halt any campaign in its tracks. Which is realistic, but I think it's happening a bit too much especially since you can't really dodge it.

If your vassal king has himself a large demesne (i.e. granted direct control over several counties) he will be able to stomp on his own rebels. Of course, that makes him more dangerous to you.

 

[RK47]

Switching culture is very fucked up indeed. It's the biggest issue because a lot of your vassals are going to -20 out of Foreign culture. That's why whenever I see a 6 year old count/duke I quickly gave him a Frankish tutor to set him straight.

 

[Trash]

The Prince and the Thane is very slow for me, no matter what speed i set it is always speed 2 or 3 while vanilla runs smoothly. Any way to improve on this?

Are you playing my put together version with the Better Looking Character mod included? That one is known to hog resources on some pc's.

 

[Space Satan]

What I don't like about TPATT is ridiculously reduced income, even if you have 20 or so stewardship and lots of income buildings.

 

[Trash]

Rulers where always scrounching for money. Look at how the templars ended for a great example. It's also a great example of ways to increase income in TPATT for you. Find rich folks and then drain them of money. Nero would approve. Or just go and wage war. Prisoners make for a decent pile of gold but its the sieges where you really can make a bundle.

All in all, with a little creativity you to can get rid of your demesnes money problems!

Besides, I find it pretty balanced. In vanilla you basically got income coming out of your nose as soon as you own a few provinces. More money than you can spend. At least here you've got to pick the shit you're going to spend on and even then you really have to work hard to run out of cash.

 

[Kattze]

What I don't like about TPATT is ridiculously reduced income, even if you have 20 or so stewardship and lots of income buildings.

Not really, if I can make over 1400+ gold from my shithole provinces in Semien with 2-3 gold per month, so can you! Though most of it came from rich Jews that I've invited to my court dying left and right.

 

[Borelli]

The Prince and the Thane is very slow for me, no matter what speed i set it is always speed 2 or 3 while vanilla runs smoothly. Any way to improve on this?

Are you playing my put together version with the Better Looking Character mod included? That one is known to hog resources on some pc's.

Ok i tried turning off all official portrait packs and the game now runs much smoother, still slightly lags but i blame the mod's size for that, generally it is very playable now.

 

[Tigranes]

I *am* Emperor so that's a factor, but I found plenty of money, never quite enough to hire mercs whenever I need them but that's the way it should be. In vanilla assassinations in particular were far too affordable. I just wish the bloody diseases would be a little more forgiving.

 

[Borelli]

I find the diseases to be too mild, "omg i have tuberculosis!, oh it's nothing it was just a cough i'm 100% healthy now!"