[Crusader King 2] Annunciato il nuovo CK!

[Kordian]

Well, it's Friday and high time to spill the beans on the new expansion for Crusader Kings II; the Sword of Islam. Judging by the forum, playable Muslims is the most requested feature for CKII, and who are we to disagree? We always wanted to do it, provided we could do the Muslim world justice. That time is now (or, well, soon ). As with the Ruler Designer DLC, the Sword of Islam will be released together with a major content patch. What you get with the Sword of Islam is simply the ability to play as the Muslim rulers, but all the new mechanics will be there and running for the AI (or other players in multiplayer) even if you don't have the expansion.

I'll be doing three dev diaries on the Sword of Islam, each one dealing with some unique features for the Muslims as well as some free features that everyone will have access to simply by patching to 1.06.

THE SWORD OF ISLAM

One of the major hassles with making Muslims playable was the prevalence of text with obviously Christian or Western terminology. Therefore, we had to go through all text to make it fit the setting if you are playing a Muslim. Often, this required writing whole new events and decisions. For example, Muslims don't hold tournaments, they have the Furusiyya instead, which is an exhibition of martial arts and horsemanship. They don't hold Grand Feasts, they observe the Ramadan, etc. We also added some completely new decisions, like going on the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), which will initiate a cool little event driven story of what happens on the way to and from the holy city. Of course, there is also a whole slew of events dealing with various new gameplay features (more on that in later dev diaries.)

Another issue we needed to solve was the Gothic looking graphical interface of Crusader Kings II, which we felt did not really work when playing as a Muslim ruler. So we did a complete reskin with sand tones and green symbols and patterns instead of the church window graphics of Christian rulers. Yet another problem was that many event pictures looked distinctly Western/Christian, so we've added about 25 new ones to serve as Muslim equivalents. Then there are all the little things, like trait icons with crosses, the Crusade banner, etc. All of that has been changed to provide the right atmosphere. We've even changed the five councillor models for Muslims when they're out in the provinces performing jobs. It's all been a lot of work, but I think it turned out really well.

Muslims get a slightly different set of character traits; they don't get the Kinslayer, Crusader, Celibate and Chaste Traits. Instead, they get the Mujahid, Hajjaj, Faqih (Islamic law expert), Hafiz (has memorized the Koran), Sayyid (agnatic descendent of Fatima or one of Muhammad's uncles) and Mirza (child of a Sayyida mother) traits.

Lastly, Muslims get another set of honorary titles to hand out to their vassals. They all get a few special flavour events - especially the Chief Qadi - a position requiring an ecclesiastical education.



That's it for the Sword of Islam in this dev diary; next time I will go into the core dynamics of playing as a Muslim ruler.

THE 1.06 PATCH

Now then, here's some of the free stuff we're giving ya'll in the 1.06 patch...

First off, we thought the southwest corner of the map looked a bit dull, so we added a bunch of new provinces down there, representing the flourishing civilizations of the Manden people; Ghana, Mali and Songhay. The area comes with historical rulers (of course) and a new West African culture group. The region is rich but hard to reach.



For flavour, we have also made it so that duchy tier and above titles held by rulers of Iranian, Arabic and Turkish cultures are named after the ruling dynasty. For example, the Kingdom of Egypt automatically becomes the Fatimid Sultanate while the Fatimids are in power (though the original name is also used where appropriate.) In case the same dynasty holds several high rank titles, only the highest is named after the dynasty. Thus, we can have both a Seljuk Sultanate and a Sultanate of Rum, both ruled by the Seljuk dynasty. Randomly generated characters of these cultures automatically get a dynasty name suitable to name states after (ending with -id or -n, etc).



Lastly (for this dev diary), there are seven new creatable empires (the Arabian Empire, the Empire of Persia, Britannia, Scandinavia, Francia, Spain and Russia) and a whole slew of new de jure kingdoms, mostly to break up the old kingdom of Khazaria. Now, I know the addition of the new empires is controversial, but the creation conditions are designed to be fairly difficult to achieve, so the AI will very rarely do it. We want players to have the imperial option to strive for if they so desire - the Unions turned out to be a popular feature in Europa Universalis III.



Oh, and before anyone asks, patch 1.06 will be semi-compatible with old save games: you will be able to keep playing, but we're making no guarantees that the balance will not be completely upset, or that any added new provinces will be active and working.

That's it for now. Next week I'll talk about polygamy, decadence, and strong and weak claims!
Project Lead

[Kurtz]

provato un pò la demo e non ci ho capito un cacchio, ma sembra molto interessante. Sbaglio o è decisamente più curato rispetto agli altri titoli paradox?

[recs]

beh credo anche che abbia avuto un budget e vendite superiori agli altri titoli paradox.

cmq io ho provato eu3 e visto gli altri e direi che è abbastanza meglio ma non troppo distante dai titoli/espansioni più recenti. la naturale evoluzione della loro interfaccia.

[recs]

It's time for the second of three dev diaries on the new expansion for Crusader Kings II; the Sword of Islam! Those who watched yesterday's live stream already know a bit of what I'll talk about today. Just like last time, I'll talk about both some unique Sword of Islam features and some free stuff that comes with patch 1.06.

THE SWORD OF ISLAM

Our intention was always that playing a Muslim should feel quite different from playing a Christian ruler. One of the major differences, of course, is the ease with which you can ensure the continuation of your line. Muslim men are allowed to marry up to four women, and bastardy does not carry the same stigma. This means that Muslim dynasties tend to be huge and sprawling; especially the powerful ones. Unfortunately, all these princelings will expect a share of your wealth, and unless you can give them enough land and responsibilities, they will grow decadent, or at least, your dynasty will be perceived as being decadent. Decadent dynasties risk being replaced by more dynamic and righteous ones, and also suffer penalties to troop morale and demesne income. To compensate for these problems, Muslims have an easier time conquering, through special Casus Bellis (more on those next dev diary.)

Polygamy

The way polygamy works is that only your first wife gives you a skill bonus, but you're allowed to marry up to four. They all give you alliances, and they can all provide you with heirs. Rulers are expected to marry a number of wives corresponding to their station, so a Sultan should have four, or he will take a monthly prestige hit, whereas an Emir is only expected to have three wives, etc. Having multiple wives means that you will produce a lot of offspring, many of them half-siblings. Ambitious mothers will tend to favour their own sons, which can lead to all kinds of nasty business through events...



Open Succession Law

Muslims have access to only one succession law: 'open', also known as 'Turkish'. The way it works is that your son with the most titles and vassals inherits. There is no "unlanded sons" Prestige penalty, but there is still pressure on you to land all of your sons, because adult men of your dynasty will accrue Decadence. In the Muslim world, brothers, especially half-brothers, dislike each other (negative opinion modifier.) This means that Muslims tend to suffer frequent succession crises.

Decadence

Decadence lies at the heart of the Sword of Islam. It's what really separates Muslims from Christians; not that Christians could not be perceived as being individually decadent, but there was not the same type of friction between clans and tribes. Thus, decadence affects the whole dynasty. Dynasties start out with 25% decadence, which has no effect one way or the other. Decadence increases by having indolent, unlanded males of your dynasty kicking about, depending on their rank and the total rank of all titles held by members of your dynasty. Dynasty members who give decadence are listed in a new list in the Religion View (well, they are immoral.) You stop them from gaining decadence primarily by giving them enough land, imprisoning them or simply killing them off. You only lose decadence when dynasty members fight in battles and sieges, or through certain events. The decadence level affects the morale damage your demesne troops take and the tax income from your demesne. At 75% decadence or more, there is a very real risk of a more dynamic tribe riding in from the wastes to depose you and your whole House (this is one serious rebellion...)



THE 1.06 PATCH

On to the 1.06 patch!

Strong and Weak Claims

There is a problem with the old claim system, in that some very remote relative can just declare war to supplant not just a perfectly legitimate ruler, but also the next five people in line to the throne. Therefore, we've reworked the system to differentiate between strong and weak claims. Strong claims work like before, but are only given to the second and third person in line to the throne when a ruler dies. Weak claims are given to children who are further down the line of succession. When a strong claimant dies (and the claim is "pressed"), it is inherited as a weak claim. Weak claims can only be pressed against women (if the claimant is male), regencies, titles currently in a succession crisis and titles that the claimant is second or third in line to inherit.

Plots

We've added and changed some things. Chiefly, we've added a plot to gain a claim on the title of a target character. Also, the murder plots have been completely reworked. You no longer get decisions that you can simply execute at various plot power levels. Instead, plotters can randomly find opportunities to strike depending on their contribution to the plot power.

Event Window improvements

We've made some changes to make event windows more appealing. You can now see the icon, with tooltips, of traits being added or removed in an event option. Also, event options that only appear if you have a high enough skill are now properly marked with a coloured border.



I believe that will do for now. Next week I'll talk about the Muslims CBs, vassal treatment, temple holdings and laws, as well as some more patch features. Until then!

ancora devo leggerlo.

[Daniels]

Salve, ero intenzionato ad approfittare dei saldi su steam per prendere questo titolo, vale la pena prenderlo? è simile ad europa universalis o cambia radicalmente?

[il_Fabri]

dipende da quanto EU3 ti piace e da quanto lo trovi complesso.
La base è quella, solo con molta più diplomazia/intrighi
La parte militare è la solita.
Onestamente, è stato uno dei pochi giochi che in questi anni mi ha quasi tentato di prenderlo appena uscito (il che, considerando anche di quante patch/espansioni solitamente hanno bisogno i giochi paradox, è un record )

[Daniels]

Bè eu mi piace molto, in pratica è una versione curata meglio di eu?

[recs]

è incentrata sulle dinastie (essendo il periodo feudale) e non sulle nazioni. il punteggio finale si fa espandendo il più possibile la propria dinastia e piazzandola in posizioni di potere in giro per l'europa.

si gioca con il discendente del ramo principale.

è meno incentrato sull'aspetto economico (niente centri di trade o slider sulle politiche nazionali) che si limita a costruire edifici, ricercare tecnologie e impostare le tasse. la parte militare è abbastanza simile anche se leggermente più evoluta e con un focus anche sui generali. con la prossima patch dovrebbe essere ulteriormente affinata, ma la meccanica di base rimane quella di eu3.

la diplomazia offre molte più opzioni nelle interazioni sia interne che esterne al regno.

secondo me come gioco è superiore ad eu, offre più opzioni. inoltre è solo all'inizio con la prima espansione in vista per il mondo islamico e almeno un'altra per i bizantini in arrivo. se continua a vendere ce ne saranno altre in futuro. poi c'è già il mod in lavorazione per westeros.

[Jaqen]

Praticamente nulla da aggiungere a quanto ha detto bene recs.

[Kordian]

Io ho giocato un po' a EU1 e EU2, poi ho scoperto CK1 e ha manipolato la mia attenzione per anni. EU3 l'ho comprato 2 volte (proprio così! La prima volta era allegato a GMC, la seconda era in offerta con altre 2 espansioni che mi mancavano su Steam e la spesa davvero esigua) ma non l'ho praticamente mai giocato perchè lo trovo per certi aspetti più statico e frustrante della serie CK.

CK2 è un ottimo seguito con un ampio margine di miglioramento nel corso di questi mesi/anni

[Zent]

L'ho preso oggi a sconto su Steam, ho iniziato una partita con Costantino X......per ora è in pausa prima devo imparare a giocarci. Mi sembra veramente complesso come gioco, non sono abituato a strategici del genere, avete consigli su come iniziare?

[recs]

fatti tutti i tutorial.

edit: e comincia con un dominio più piccolo. è più semplice da gestire e hai meno personaggi con cui interagire. le scelte popolari sono il sud italia se vuoi combattere con gli islamici oppure un duca irlandese. se vuoi partire da re allora o il re di scozia (che usi durante il tutorial) o il re polacco.

[Kordian]

In molti sostengono che sia meglio iniziare in Irlanda come prima partita

[Zent]

Ok grazie, peccato sono fissato con Bisanzio, comunque faccio il tutorial e parto con qualcosa di piu piccolo.

[recs]

calcola anche che bisanzio attualmente è strutturata come un semplice impero feudale. le meccaniche non sono personalizzate. lo dovrebbero essere in futuro.

[recs]

novità:

Hello again folks! Stay a while, and listen. The highlights of today's third and last Sword of Islam developer diary are Muslim Casus Bellis, revised combat mechanics and cultural buildings. You know the drill by now; I'll talk about both some unique Sword of Islam features and some free stuff that comes with patch 1.06.

THE SWORD OF ISLAM

Our direction with the Sword of Islam expansion is that Muslims should have an easier time expanding, but have an additional layer of internal strife in the form of the Open Succession Law and the Decadence system.

Muslim Casus Bellis

Muslim rulers have three new options for conquest:

• They can declare Holy Wars on anyone not of their own exact brand of Islam
• They can use a form of the Invasion CB for the cost of 500 Piety
• They can conquer any province bordering one of their own for 50 Piety (vassalizing the current count if possible)

Pious Muslim rulers can thus easily expand, although they lose 2 Piety per month while attacking a brother of the faith (same exact religion.) The councillor job to fabricate a claim is thus less useful for Muslims, but can still be handy versus islands or juicy coastal counties.



Revokation of Duchies

Duchies (emirates) are not considered to be intrinsically hereditary, so Muslims are allowed to revoke duchy titles at no opinion penalty from other vassals. This is also a good way of properly landing your sons to avoid gaining Decadence. (Incidentally, the Byzantine Empire is now allowed to do the same thing, though it does not have the Decadence mechanics.)

Dynastic Imprisonment and Execution

Another Muslim exception to the normal rules is that they are allowed to freely imprison and execute men of their own dynasty, except for their own sons. Brothers and uncles are the usual targets for these Decadence reducing purges...

Temple Holdings

In the Muslim world, there is no proper equivalent to Bishoprics, so Temple Holdings are treated exactly like Castles, except for their different set of buildings. You gain Piety for having a Temple Holding in your demesne, but they are slightly poorer and provide smaller levies than their Catholic equivalents (in order to balance them against the investiture mechanics.)

Passing Laws

Muslims do not need to bother with a voting process when passing laws; they just spend an amount of Piety. However, there is still a cooldown and Crown Laws can only be changed once per ruler. The vassals will also still get upset in the same way as Christians.

Jizya Tax

To represent the Jizya tax (a special tax that should, according to Sharia law, be levied on infidels), Muslims gain a 25% tax bonus from infidel counties and a 10% tax penalty in Muslim counties. This creates an interesting dynamic where it's not always obvious that you would want to convert an infidel province to Islam. However, there is a special event where this happens anyway, even if you don't send in your Court Imam to convert the populace.



That's pretty much it for the Sword of Islam expansion, although I'm sure to have forgotten about many minor little changes and tweaks.

THE 1.06 PATCH

Alright, so here are a few more freebies coming your way soon with the 1.06 patch...

Expanded Combat Tactics

We have added a bunch of more (and more decisive) combat tactics, to make combat less predictable and to tie in with the new Commander traits...

Commander Traits

We have added a special type of trait called Commander traits. These are only available to characters with a Martial education, and give more specific bonuses to the character's ability to lead various troop types, and the choice of combat tactics. Characters gain one or two Commander traits when they finish their education. The effects of the Commander traits directly scale with the Martial skill of the character.



More Culture Specific Buildings

One thing that many people have requested is a broader range of culture specific buildings, and who are we to argue? We have added loads of these to give more variety and flavor.

Destruction of Titles

You are now allowed to destroy ducal tier titles and above, at a hefty Prestige cost. This will greatly upset (-50 opinion) all vassals who are de jure part of the destroyed title. You cannot destroy your current primary title.



AI Improvements

Apart from some minor improvements, the AI is now better at jumping on rulers who are already embroiled in dangerous wars (though it's still not excessively aggressive about this.) I've also spent a bit of time on attrition avoidance for AI armies, and the AI will now assault besieged holdings when appropriate.

That's it for dev diaries for now. Next week, we'll post a short AAR by a member of the dev team!

[Kordian]

Mi avete convinto, anche se personalmente -per usare un eufemismo- non vado pazzo per la cultura araba e l'islam credo che prenderò il DLC affinchè queste meccaniche rendano la partita più realistica

Che vantaggio c'è nel distruggere un titolo?

[recs]

immagino per liberarsi di alcuni malus (desidera titolo x, troppi titoli ducali) e bersagli per potenze esterne (magari hanno un claim su titolo x).

molto interessante anche che i bizantini possano amministrare più liberamente i titoli interni all'impero.

giocare da islamico sembra richiedere parecchia gestione dei titoli interni tra epurazioni e piazzamento figli.

edit: chissà quanto sarà bilanciato il tutto al day one.

[Jaqen]

Hello again folks! Stay a while, and listen.

I see what they did there

Comunque sembra interessante!

[Zent]

Ma non ho capito, questo dlc dell'islam è stand-alone o va ad unirsi al gioco normale, nel senso che puoi anche usare gli arabi?

[recs]

si aggiunge.

e le meccaniche di base ci sono anche senza dlc per l'ai e il multi con chi ha comprato anche sword. per cui se non interessa giocare gli islamici si può anche non comprarlo. io lo prenderò se sta 10€ perchè se lo sono meritato finora.

[recs]

dal thread, alcuni esempi di edifici specifici per cultura:

As requested, a few examples...

The Byzantines will get access to Cataphract training grounds which grants them some heavy cavalry and a small amount of horse archers, the Hungarians and Poles get Hussar training grounds which provides light cavalry with a slight defensive bonus.

Scandinavians can build Housecarl training grounds which grants heavy infantry with an offensive bonus, but a slight defensive penalty. The Irish can build Gallowglass buildings which also gives heavy infantry, but with a defensive bonus.

Arabic cultures will have access to Camel riding grounds, providing extra light cavalry.

Also, without going into further detail, additional new buildings have been added for the West Africans, East Africans, the Dutch and the South Slavs.

We have tried to make certain that every culture has access to one of the unique buildings, so we have also given the Welsh access to the longbow ranges (something they probably should have had from the start) and the Bretons access to the squire lists just to name two examples.

[Kordian]

Quindi se paradossalmente sono un lord arabo e conquisto la Lapponia posso costruire dei training grounds per cavalleria su cammello?

[recs]

non so se basta la cultura del lord o conta quella della provincia.

credo la seconda e in quel caso credo che le culture si espandano solo su territori confinanti.

se riesci a popolare di arabi dal deserto alla lapponia allora ti meriti i cammelli in lapponia.

[Jaqen]

Beh, io avevo Tunisi popolata dai normanni