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CK2 Dev Diary #17: Crusader Cats

Hello everyone! I’m Virvatuli, one of the Content Designers on The Reaper’s Due, which also happens to be my very first project here at Paradox. It’s been so much fun working on this DLC and I hope you’ll have even more fun playing it! In this week’s DD (another first for me), I will reveal one of Reaper’s most important features. Oh, okay, it might not be that important, but at least it’s my personal favourite and pet project. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you cats.

For the longest time, there’s been a issue regarding the representation of pets in Crusader Kings 2. In the realm of companion animals, there has been a worrisome lack of diversity. Most of you who play Way of Life have probably had a loyal hunting dog, there have been some events regarding birds of prey, and a lucky few Conclave players might have encountered a tiny rodent friend. Sadly, that has been pretty much it on the pet front. To rectify this serious problem we’ve added some additional furry and feathered friends in The Reaper’s Due. As we did, of course we couldn’t leave out the best animal of them all: our Feline Overlords, Befurred Ninjas, Gods of the Internet.

In the new DLC you can befriend a cat in a number of ways. However, as any Dwarf Fortress player or real-life cat lover knows, you do not adopt a cat. A cat adopts you. Once your feline friend has decided that you’re the one and only slave for it, you will receive a fancy “Pet Cat” character modifier (unless you scare it away, you horrible person). It will give your character +1 health, as the cat brings you so much happiness, and +1 intrigue, because we all know that cat owners are a bit more clever than everyone else (hey, it’s science!).

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However, most things can become troublesome in excess, even your love for felines. In every cat owner’s life there comes a time when you ask yourself if you shouldn’t get just one more. At some point, the answer is probably no, at least if you don’t want to scare off all of your friends and repulse the courtiers.

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Unless you want to become even sneakier, that is. Then go ahead and become a Crazy Cat Lady, or a Crazy Cat Lord, if that’s how you identify.

At first thought, one might think that cats would be a very insignificant aspect of a medieval ruler’s life, however, when the Plague comes around to visit this changes drastically. Most of you probably know that the Black Death was likely spread by fleas on rats. Sadly this fact is unknown to ye olde peasant, and when people start to die, some of them might point fingers to our furry protectors. Believe it or not, there are some people who do not like cats. It’s crazy, I know, but trust me on this. How will you deal with their growing fears? Do remember, if you don’t have cats, you’ll have plenty of rats…

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This sneak peak of cats is all you’ll get for now. Don’t worry though, The Reaper’s Due is out on the 25th of August and then you can experience cats for yourself in all their whiskered glory. Next week Darkrenown will talk about more assorted features. Now I need to get back to scripting, there’re still some cat-related subjects which need further exploration… Adieu!
 
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yes, youre right.



Yeah right, they have not even fixed the problems of the last "big" dlc Conclave. You know what happens if I start a new game? My Councilmembers (opinion doesnt matter, even with +50 they start a new faction) start faction "increase council power in XXX". You know what happens if i play as Charlemagne and defeat my brother and reunite Francia ? DEFENSIVE PACTS EVERYWHERE. So youre telling me that it makes sense that a TENGRI King makes a DEFENSIVE PACT with Pagan German, Slavic, Romuva rulers ? Yeah right, THEY FIXED IT .............

Here take a look at these screenshots (sc from 4.8.2016)
lCdEe21.jpg


gxCCLpG.jpg

This is my main problem with Paradox. They create soo many dlc and they dont even fix the previous ones.
They have the time to create CAT-RELATED EVENTCHAINS/TRAITS but they cant fix the existing problems ?
Priorities, right ? To be honest i lost every hope that they fix all these problems that this game has right now, and the list of all these problems/issues is long.

Well they cant really sell a patch that fixes current problems...... ;)
 
Well they cant really sell a patch that fixes current problems...... ;)

True, but they could issue a patch prior to the DLC that fixed the most glaring issues. Conclave was, lets face it, not well received. Paradox would have generated a lot of good grace if they'd embarked on a course of patching whilst the DLC was being worked on. Adding in the new switches, for example, would have mollified a lot of people.

It's likely initial sales of the Reaper's Due will be lower because of the poor reception Conclave received. That'll be a shame if true because it's clear the team have taken on board a lot of the criticism and made an effort to address a lot of the issues people have.
 
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True, but they could issue a patch prior to the DLC that fixed the most glaring issues. Conclave was, lets face it, not well received. Paradox would have generated a lot of good grace if they'd embarked on a course of patching whilst the DLC was being worked on. Adding in the new switches, for example, would have mollified a lot of people.

It's likely initial sales of the Reaper's Due will be lower because of the poor reception Conclave received. That'll be a shame if true because it's clear the team have taken on board a lot of the criticism and made an effort to address a lot of the issues people have.

I dunno, I think they figured out a while ago that most people keep buying their DLCs for this game no matter what they do. So they keep pumping them out, & we keep buying them. I think they do their best, but in a game with this many moving parts, its probably not realistic to think that they could ever squash all the bugs. Also, no matter what game design decision they try to implement, not everyone will be happy with it. So they just keep cranking out the DLCs. And we keep buying them. And complaining on their forums. ;)
 
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Sounds like a fun Dlc. Curious now, will I get it when it's released or will I have to wait for a sale. Due to the peculiar pricing of Paradox Dlc lately.
 
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yes, youre right.



Yeah right, they have not even fixed the problems of the last "big" dlc Conclave. You know what happens if I start a new game? My Councilmembers (opinion doesnt matter, even with +50 they start a new faction) start faction "increase council power in XXX". You know what happens if i play as Charlemagne and defeat my brother and reunite Francia ? DEFENSIVE PACTS EVERYWHERE. So youre telling me that it makes sense that a TENGRI King makes a DEFENSIVE PACT with Pagan German, Slavic, Romuva rulers ? Yeah right, THEY FIXED IT .............

Here take a look at these screenshots (sc from 4.8.2016)
lCdEe21.jpg


gxCCLpG.jpg

This is my main problem with Paradox. They create soo many dlc and they dont even fix the previous ones.
They have the time to create CAT-RELATED EVENTCHAINS/TRAITS but they cant fix the existing problems ?
Priorities, right ? To be honest i lost every hope that they fix all these problems that this game has right now, and the list of all these problems/issues is long.

Well now, that's a different matter entirely from what belongs to a grand strategy game and what doesn't, which was your original argument behind the criticism of cat-events. I agree, that faster patching would be something nice to see, though the recent patchless rough patch (pardon the pun) seems to mainly result from summer holidays. And from what I can tell coalitions and councils were adjusted after Conclave release - maybe they're not perfect, but much more playable than when they came out! And I'm sure that after more testing they will be changed further.

In fact, please take a look at previous Dev Diaries. Have you noticed they plan on giving everyone the option to turn off some of the much-maligned Conclave features off, selectively? And they are doing it as part of a free patch. Now, I'd estimate that these game options took a lot of time and effort to put in with the existing game structure so it's really not like they are not addressing the issue at all - quite on the contrary.

Compare that to scripting an event chain. That's something that can be done by a single team member pretty quickly and requires really not that much testing if it works properly. It'd add barely any time to the development process, compared to fixing major flaws introduced by previous DLCs - which they are also doing!

Sure, the company could put all its' efforts into just fixing things which people complain about. They would then have to wait and hold off on ANY new content basically forever, since people will always complain, and the game would not develop.

It's sad to hear you're not having fun with the current state of the game. I'm not telling you to have fun regardless - that'd be silly, because we all take pleasure from our entertainment in different ways, that's just the way that people are. Which is exactly why I'm wondering what in other people liking a few minor cat-related event chains riles you up. Judging from your tone it must upset you very much, and that's simply unhealthy - take it from someone who's been dealing with stress-related issues for over a quarter of a century, those things all build up and can seriously affect one's health.

I think I understand better now - you seem to be so displeased with the current state of the game that the cat-thing is just an outlet for your anger. That's a bad place to be. But is venting on the forums really helping you deal with that anger, does it give you hope that it'll change thins, or at least that you did what you could to be heard? Some people, myself included, feel the urge to vent on occasion but then that venting escalates the negativity, as I verbalise my complains I start adding grievance upon grievance making me feel worse about the original situation, and entrenching in my mind a negative attitude and position, since they now have been verbalised and argued. And your shifting of the discussion from the nature of grand strategy to game balancing reminds me of that thing I do.

Hopefully not. Hopefully venting helps you relieve stress and anger and you feel cleansed after stating you grievances. I most sincerely wish you a pleasant day!
 
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It's a CATastrophe ! Much CATerwaulin' about it.

Ok..I'll stop now. Really, I will.

Follower of Freyja - whose chariot is drawn by cats...
 
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Please tell me this is freaking parody. Conclave was bad enough. If this is legit, I'm having my "Bye, Felicia" moment with CK.

Its legit. Every now & then they'll slip in some funky stuff to keep us on our toes. Remember the devil spawn event thing in Sons of Abraham I think it was? :)
 
Its legit. Every now & then they'll slip in some funky stuff to keep us on our toes. Remember the devil spawn event thing in Sons of Abraham I think it was? :)
This is truly a massive waste of time. They should be adding a warmonger mechanic for players who want to knock off the Irish Baronies that don't care about no Pope.
 
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There's more to the story. Viking has like cats. Christian hate cats. Not all the time. It start at the beginning of the late middle age. Do you like cats? Ok the next stake is yours. Cat = devil! The cat has aThe german word for heretic is Ketzer. It comes from Katze (Cat).

Good lord, no. It derives from lat. Cathari, the cathars in the game. Felines are fine, religionwise.
 
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As far as the Catholic Church was concerned, thinking that cats were ill omens was heretical. The Church itself didn't become hysterical about witchcraft until the Reformation. The peasants were another story.
 
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You know what I hate? When people like different things from me! Ugh, idiots, enjoying things which are not the same as the things I enjoy! It makes me mad! Everyone should just like the same things as me, maybe consult with me before making anything new, that way I wouldn't need to get upset about them making the wrong things for me - the only person whose opinion matters! :mad:

Hint: If you don't like cats just don't click on the event option to let a cat adopt you.
 
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You know what I hate? When people like different things from me! Ugh, idiots, enjoying things which are not the same as the things I enjoy! It makes me mad! Everyone should just like the same things as me, maybe consult with me before making anything new, that way I wouldn't need to get upset about them making the wrong things for me - the only person whose opinion matters! :mad:

Hint: If you don't like cats just don't click on the event option to let a cat adopt you.
Yup. nice change of pace when players knock a frivolous dev's idea rather than them knocking on player suggestions for content. :)
 
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Yup. nice change of pace when players knock a frivolous dev's idea rather than them knocking on player suggestions for content. :)

You need to grow up.

Again, as Darkrenown said, you don't have to even interact with the cats if you do want to.

Besides, I'm fully certain that developing this feature didn't take away from "Player Suggestions".
 
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You know what I hate? When people like different things from me! Ugh, idiots, enjoying things which are not the same as the things I enjoy! It makes me mad! Everyone should just like the same things as me, maybe consult with me before making anything new, that way I wouldn't need to get upset about them making the wrong things for me - the only person whose opinion matters! :mad:

Hint: If you don't like cats just don't click on the event option to let a cat adopt you.

This.

I was really upset when RoI came out. I dont think CK2 needs India in the game at all, but it happened regardless of what I thought. A lot of people did like it though, so good for them. I still ended up buying the expansion, just to support Paradox, even though like I said, I dont agree with India at all. I still have never played a game in India, & dont intend to.
 
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Yup. nice change of pace when players knock a frivolous dev's idea rather than them knocking on player suggestions for content. :)
What are you talking about, every developer added mechanic gets ridiculed by someone. It doesn't matter what it is. "But I don't like it!"

I guess it isn't a good thing the game is made specifically for you, it is made for everyone and there should be some content in the DLC that everyone should enjoy. There isn't something you want in the DLC? Then you don't need to buy it, but you will get a patch for the game to fix bugs and add some new content. Don't want the patch, then you can revert to the older version.

There really is no reason to complain about an event chain being added, expect to simply be that person.
 
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