• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

CK2 Dev Diary #103 - Long live the King!

Greetings.

Today we will put Pagans aside, go back to good old Catholics, and explore one of the new features coming for them with Holy Fury: Coronation Ceremonies.

20180730085127_1.jpg


With this expansion, succeeding to the throne of a Catholic Kingdom or Empire will not be a simple matter of gaining the title itself. The new ruler will need to organize a Coronation Ceremony (via new intrigue decision) and be recognized as legitimate by a notable member of the Catholic Church.
If a Catholic ruler fails to be officially crowned, he will see his popularity slowly fade away each year, as his vassals grow more and more restless under what they perceive as an illegitimate King.

20180730085152_1.jpg


Coronation is divided into two phases: preparation and ceremony.
During the preparation, the ruler will decide whom he wishes to be crowned by, he will meet the Church’s demands, and invest money to organize the ceremony. In the second phase, the ruler will host the ceremony itself, interacting with guests and ultimately receiving his crown.

When organizing a ceremony, a Catholic King can choose between three possible options when it comes to officiant priests: he can be crowned by a low-status theocratic vassal within his realm, by a powerful theocratic vassal within his realm (such as a Cardinal, Antipope or Prince-Bishop), or by the Pope himself. Catholic Emperors who fail to enact the Free Investiture succession on the other hand will be limited in their selection only to the Pope.
While being crowned by a local Bishop is a lot less prestigious, it is also much cheaper, as higher-ranking members of the Church will be prone to make outlandish requests, especially if they dislike the ruler requesting them to officiate his coronation.

Coronation2.jpg


Requests may vary a lot, especially when it comes to the Pope: the Holy Father might ask you to change your realm’s Investiture laws, wage war against an Excommunicated ruler on behalf of the Papacy, or to restore some of the Central Italian provinces to the Holy See.
Be sure to be in good relations with the Pope before asking for a coronation if you wish to receive a more tolerable offer.

Once the demands of your chosen priest have been met, you will be able to select a budget for your ceremony which will determine the kind of coronation you will receive, the kind of flavor events tied to it and the number of guests participating in it.
An extravagant coronation is a prestigious event to which all your vassals, courtiers and even neighboring Christian rulers are invited, a secluded coronation is a private feast to which only your Council will have access to.

20180730091014_1.jpg


Once the ceremony has been concluded, your character will receive a specific trait tied to the priest that crowned him, as well as retain any additional perks granted by the flavor events experienced during the feast leading up to the coronation.

You might have noticed from the screenshots that this new mechanic affects character portraits as well: Catholic Kings and Emperors that have not been crowned will no longer wear the high-tier headgear in Holy Fury, defaulting to the Ducal band instead until their rank has been officially recognized by the Church (naturally, if you do not own Holy Fury, Catholic Kings and Emperors will wear the appropriate gear by default as before).

20180730091758_1.jpg


This is not the only portrait-related addition though: Holy Fury will bring to the game a series of special crown artifacts that will be visible on portraits whenever the characters are wearing them. Most of these artifacts can only be used when the character meets certain requirements and they are often tied to a specific title rather than a character’s dynasty.

Coronation6.jpg

Coronation7.jpg


And this should be about it for this week.
 
Nice addition. Will there be certain locations to be hold as requirements, like Aachen for HRE, or the one Frederick the Staufer went to (Koblenz?) so that there could actually be something like a race between two contenders ?
 
I see it the other way around. If you start using pagan artifacts yourself you risk being called a pagan, and for good reason. One thing is displaying your foes captured items and another one is use them as if they were yours.

Pagan ones yes, but what about the Holy Roman Emperor crown while being the King of France? The Crown of the Holy Roman Empire should serve to give you a claim to the throne of the HRE if it's in your possession, while at the same time infuriating everybody within the current Holy Roman Empire. Their beloved Crown is in the hands of a French? Absurd!
 
Pagan ones yes, but what about the Holy Roman Emperor crown while being the King of France? The Crown of the Holy Roman Empire should serve to give you a claim on the throne if it's in your possession, while at the same time infuriating everybody within the current Holy Roman Empire that their beloved Crown is in the hands of a French.
Infuriating Holy Roman People by displaying it after capturing it, yes. Giving a claim for the Empire, maybe, it would depend on the crown. Actually wearing it for holding court... It's not yours to use. You know it, your vassals know it. Unless you're actually laying claim to the title I don't think you should use it.
 
This is pretty cool stuff. Maybe I'll let one of my African scions get converted by the northern infidels, just to get a taste of coronations and civil discord.



I notice that a lot of dev responses as of late mention time: such a thing would be cool, but no time. Considered something, but no time. Makes it sound like we're either getting closer to the light, or crunch time is sinking its teeth in hard.

Is there any chance that coronations, or flavours therein, might eventually be expanded to other faiths in future expansions, demand and themes willing? It's impossible to read this dev diary without thinking of the coronation scene from Ivan the Terrible.
 
Requests may vary a lot, especially when it comes to the Pope: the Holy Father might ask you to change your realm’s Investiture laws, wage war against an Excommunicated ruler on behalf of the Papacy, or to restore some of the Central Italian provinces to the Holy See.
Be sure to be in good relations with the Pope before asking for a coronation if you wish to receive a more tolerable offer.

If the Pope is our vassal will he crown us out of hand?
 
Not sure if this has been asked, i'll just go ahead:
Can you steal or otherwise get the title-related crown of another ruler, and if so do you get a claim on the title?
 
If you, or the priest you are asking to crown you, possess either certain stats or traits, will there be extra options?

Like, say the I possess a high diplomacy stat and/or the pope has the greedy trait, would it be possible to offer the pope gold instead of what ever it is that they are asking for?

Sort of like how when your vassals ask for something you can placate them with a high diplomacy or how you get extra options to say no to the popes request to change out of free investiture if you have a high enough learning.
 
If a Catholic ruler fails to be officially crowned, he will see his popularity slowly fade away each year, as his vassals grow more and more restless under what they perceive as an illegitimate King.
if a Catholic king happens to have a non-Catholic vassal, will said vassal care about the coronation or lack thereof?
 
Thank you for the Iranian crown! I was never really fond of the "Cyrus Crown"—and while I would have preferred a Sassanid crown, going with the Qajar and Pahlavi option is awesome!