CK2 Dev Diary #16: Man's inhumanity to man

[Enriador]

>It’s all in an easily moddable file too, just in case modders think we have been insufficiently creative.

ARE YOU GRINDING MY JIMMIES? you STOLE this idea from modders. They have done this way before you announced this DLC. Doubt? check it ou then:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635776529&searchtext=execution
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=503399786&searchtext=execution

You should leave content like this to modders, you should improve game mechanics and such. Why haven't you made a combat overhaul yet? naval combat, no? no of course not. UNBELIEVABLE Paradox, wanting to extract as much money as possible. If mods like HIP or AGOT dont use content added in this DLC, i'm pretty sure most wont buy your bulldefecation. You should be INNOVATING not COPYING.

While I don't think the devs stole anything (man, it's their game after all), I do agree that, in my humble opinion, they should improve core, hardcoded mechanics instead of doing what most modders already do - and much better, for that matter.

 

[Strager]

Do Skull Trophies stack?

 

[Fabiano79]

While I don't think the devs stole anything (man, it's their game after all), I do agree that, in my humble opinion, they should improve core, hardcoded mechanics instead of doing what most modders already do - and much better, for that matter.

Although I will buy this DLC, as I buy almost everything made by PDX, I do agree with you.

I dont think this DLC adds or improves enough to bring me back to CK2, and bring back players should be the main objective of a new DLC. This kind of small content flavour DLC looks too much as they are just milking the fanbase money. Paradox is my favourite gaming company and I wish they stuck in releasing DLCs with major changes and mechanics, like Old Gods.

 

[Knotz]

Just out of curiosity would ya'll have preferred if this DLC only contained the prosperity and plague mechanics and left out the thematically appropriate flavorful touches?

 

[Jorlem]

4. It's an interesting idea, often brought up, but really it would need the whole opinion system to be built around it rather than something to tack on.

Something to put on the shelf for when it comes time to consider mechanics for CK3, perhaps?

That said, CK2 does have an opinion-like mechanic that exists in parallel to opinion: Threat. Something like the Threat mechanic, but based on a character's personal actions instead of their international-scale actions would do quite nicely for a "respect" mechanic. And that way you'd have it as a base when moving to CK3, and have ideas for how to improve it. (I'm assuming the transition will work like EU3 -> EU4 did, where the vast majority of the old content in the EU3 DLCs were carried over as part of EU4's base game.)


On another subject, any chance we might get EU4's "Prepare for war" button? Being able to have the AI tell you what it is planning, or tell the AI what you intend to do would be very useful. (Also, I'm of the opinion that if this had been included alongside the auto-CTA when 2.5 first was released, that it would not have inspired such a strong reaction.)

 

[Secret Master]

Bad poetry. Rulers with the Poet trait may deploy their very worst poems against a prisoner. While a comparatively mild punishment, it nonetheless has a slight chance to drive them mad.

 

[Nth Republic]

• Consume. Rulers who are either Possessed or Lunatic and also have the Cannibal modifier may simply eat their prisoners. If you haven’t disabled fantasy content, this may lead to you “gaining the power” of your victim.

Is this disabling of fantasy content to be an addition to the game options? Will it affect anything other than features introduced by The Reaper's Due?

 

[duelistgamer]

If I remember correctly, one of the previous DDs mentioned that there would be a number of new things for modders to play with. What we've seen so far...the new game rules menu, custom execution RNG...is this it? Or will next DDs go into more modding goodies?

 

[Keizer Harm]

If I remember correctly, one of the previous DDs mentioned that there would be a number of new things for modders to play with. What we've seen so far...the new game rules menu, custom execution RNG...is this it? Or will next DDs go into more modding goodies?

The game rules part seems pretty major to me. But this was never meant to be a huge DLC.

 

[duelistgamer]

The game rules part seems pretty major to me. But this was never meant to be a huge DLC.

I'm more curious about what will/won't change for compatibility reasons. The wiki as it is contains outdated/incomplete info in various places (which I don't necessarily have the correct answers for).

 

[Rationalsanity]

Although I will buy this DLC, as I buy almost everything made by PDX, I do agree with you.

I dont think this DLC adds or improves enough to bring me back to CK2, and bring back players should be the main objective of a new DLC. This kind of small content flavour DLC looks too much as they are just milking the fanbase money. Paradox is my favourite gaming company and I wish they stuck in releasing DLCs with major changes and mechanics, like Old Gods.

That attitude (along with the dev's overuse of nerfs) is why this game is starting to buckle under its own weight

 

[Darkrenown]

Is this disabling of fantasy content to be an addition to the game options? Will it affect anything other than features introduced by The Reaper's Due?

Yes, see this DD for other game rule stuff:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck2-dev-diary-the-rules-of-the-game.923570/

The problem with this DLC is that it's adding content from modders, that it's free, to the base game as a buying product, this means we are paying for something we already have.

In my opinion the community should open it's voice against this kind of act. The DLC as far as i know will overhaul diseases and death. The disease part i dont have a problem being sold because it's a new (or overhaul of the) mechanic, and that is fine. About the executions i think it should not be sold, but it should be added in the new patch, just like "Agressive Expansion" was added when conclave came out. That being because we already have it in a free form. It does not make sense to put a price tag in something it is already free, and what about the modders? do a work for free and we will sell it to OUR customers? The modding community is HUGE in paradox games, if it was not for them there would be way less sales: CK2 would be cut in half if not for AGOT.

Let me give you some ideas of things you should be doing:

>Combat overhaul. Take this game for example, and implement something like that in CK:http://www.clickjogos.com.br/Jogos-online/Acao-e-Aventura/1066/ (I will do a entire post about how this would/could work in the game, but it will take some time)
>Naval combat, ever thought about this?
>Better diplomacy, CK focuses on people, so why not make interaction with people a more important and fun part of the game? Economy (i think this DLC is going to improve this, but i'll list it anyway): Population, Manpower, food (to feed the population/army when raised), Troops designer (the base would be the current troops types we already have, but now you can customize a division to fit in a certain way of fighting, example: Base: Pikemen, could be changed to: spearman [more attack values at fighting infantry]/Halberdiers [better at fighting HC and SP]/ Pikeman [better at fighting Light Cav and HI]) you should take the best you have from other games and try to assimilate in a way that will benefit the game play of the game in it's own way!
>More in depth life of characters.

Those are some aspects i think the developers should actually worry about. i'll have to get out now, but i will do a post about how these things should/could be IMO.

Once again, we are not adding content from modders, we are adding our own content that is coincidentally similar in theme to a small mod.
Technically modders could have added every single event, every decision, all the province setup, the entire character database etc. - should we have added none of it and shipped the game as a bare-code base for modders to flesh out? I assume you don't think so, so where do you draw the line? Every DLC and most patches have added more of this content, is this the DLC we should have stopped doing it for, or if not, when?
I would also add to this point that while modders can add excellent content, they mostly can't do all the extra bits we can, such as add new UI elements, sound effects, trait icons and event pictures, or affect the underlying code - death reasons used to be hardcoded, now we have added a bunch more and the system has been made moddable so modders can add even more.

And yet it doesn't. The majority of the replies seem pleased with what we've added. Perhaps this signals that your personal opinions aren't the opinions of the playerbase? We've also done several other mostly script DLCs, such as Legacy of Rome, Sunset Invasion, Way of Life, and Sons of Abraham, which have mostly been well-received and sold well. If people like and buy this kind of thing, I'm not sure why we should stop making it. Of course, it might not be what you personally want, and that's fine, it is optional content after all.

Yes, most of your suggestions have been thought of, although making battles controlled like in your linked game is not something we want so if that's what you meant I would advise against making a detailed post about it. You must also understand that not everyone who works on the game is a programmer, Content Designers can't make Naval combat or new Diplomacy instead of making Execution methods, at best you would have some more events or decisions.

 

[EnvyDemon]

Humiliate. The prisoner is degraded in some fashion; such as being tarred and feathered, or forced to do a “walk of shame”. This also causes them to lose prestige and be generally looked down on.

Since I can't post the actual scene without violating forum rules.

 

[duelistgamer]

death reasons used to be hardcoded, now we have added a bunch more and the system has been made moddable so modders can add even more.

Could you clarify a bit on this? Does that mean we can define custom death_reason information? As I understand it, with the current system you either add a trait with a _death localisation attribute or use one of the other hardcoded death options. With this update will I be able to do the following:

date = {
    death = {
        death_reason = my_custom_death_message
    }
}

 

[Riekopo]

Funny we can do this kind of stuff in CK2, but we can't have POWs in HOI4.

 

[Sanny]

Me after reading this Dev Diary:

 

[Enriador]

Although I will buy this DLC, as I buy almost everything made by PDX, I do agree with you.

I dont think this DLC adds or improves enough to bring me back to CK2, and bring back players should be the main objective of a new DLC. This kind of small content flavour DLC looks too much as they are just milking the fanbase money. Paradox is my favourite gaming company and I wish they stuck in releasing DLCs with major changes and mechanics, like Old Gods.

I wouldn't go so far to say they are doing it to milk us out of cash. The content is actually pretty worth it! It's just poor development choice. The community can't, say, make naval battles possible - only Paradox can, so we are effectively "blocked" from it by a huge wall of hardcode. The community CAN do cool events, portrait sprites, traits, etc. So, why not let the pros make the big magic, and let the community do what they already do?

I would like to know other viewpoints on the matter.

 

[Rationalsanity]

Funny we can do this kind of stuff in CK2, but we can't have POWs in HOI4.

Big difference between representing medieval torture and making a game that would simulate real life genocides that are still in living memory.

 

[Dakka]

Do we get to pick which body part(s) we remove from the prisoner, or is it random?

What would you say is your least important part?
How bout your little finger?
You win, if you can tell me who I am and why I'm doing this to you. I win the game if you beg me to cut your finger off!

 

[Axe99]

Cheers for the DD Darkrenown . Definitely appropriately bright and cheer content for CK2, lol! All sounds tops, and look forward to giving it a whirl (although, I have to admit, I'm generally relatively kind to my prisoners - luckily for me, I'm also a terrible poet.....) Hope you enjoy the last week of holidays .