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CK2 Dev Diary #19 The End is Nigh

Hello all, it’s DD time again! As you hopefully know, it’s only a little over a week until Reaper’s Due is released (on the 25th), and you’ve seen pretty much all the new features by this point. As such, I don’t have any big reveals this week, so instead I will just tell you about a few assorted small features and share some of the 2.6 patchnotes with you. So, without further ado:

Reaper’s Due
As well as 2.6 making the Indian Reincarnation events work slightly better, RD includes a rare Reincarnation event which anyone can get, provided they have Fantasy Content turned on.

Parents now have some reaction events to their children being born, especially to their first child, and additional events if it is sickly.

When characters become Ill, it is possible they will suffer from a Mild, Normal, Severe, or Incapacitating version of their Illness. In the latter case they will be bedridden and will require a Regent for the duration of their Illness.

2.6
I mentioned we might do this in an earlier DD, but Nomad’s Pillage decision is now on a separate Alert to avoid accidentally Settling.

You can now zoom the camera out even further, allowing the entire map to be seen at once.

As mentioned in a non-DD thread, AI-called Crusades will be much more likely to target areas adjacent to provinces of their religion-group if they have no targets with Crusade weights set.

I thought those were interesting enough to mention, but here’s the entire “Balance” section of the 2.6 patchnotes:
Code:
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# Balance
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- Alliances and Call To Arms
    - Restored manual call to arms
    - Call to arms from allies can be declined again
    - Added defines to enable/disable auto call to arms and possibility to decline them
    - Added major opinion penalties to alliance breakers
    - Added temporary alliance-breaker modifier (gives -5 diplomacy)
    - Made alliance-breaker and truce-breaker temporary modifiers duration scriptable
    - AI will consider dissolving alliances with alliance breakers
    - AI is unlikely to accept alliances from alliance-breakers
    - Fixed a bug that prevented vassals from joining wars against tyrants. Expect revocation wars to be more risky! (can be disabled through the define VASSALS_UNITE_AGAINST_TYRANNY)
    - Can no longer call ally to war if ally has NAP with defender
    - Alliance breaks with attacker if you accept call to arms from defender

- Flanders is now properly part of France
- Norse, Pictish, Visigothic, and Saxon cultures no longer split if controlled by a powerful ruler, or if their head of religion is of their culture
- CROWDED_THRESHOLD_MODIFIER lowered to 25
- Head injury in battle now has a chance to cause disfigured rather than incapable if your have Reapers
- many "active" minor titles, such as designated regent, cannot be held by incapable characters
- Alania is now Tribal from the Old Gods start point onwards
- k_hungary no longer requires a Magyar province to form
- Increased the troop count of the Shia uprising to make it succeed slightly more often
- AI holders of k_france will no longer create k_aquitaine unless they are close to forming Francia
- Gave Berber culture 'allow_looting = yes' and 'seafarer = yes'
- Added requirement for lvl 4 hillfort/market city when upgrading Tribal holdings as a non-tribal
- The AI now makes use of Tribal Armies
- AI Nomads can now acquire warhorses
- Increased the Steal Population effect on the Humiliate CB from 10% to 25%
- Increased the impact and deadliness of most Epidemic traits
- Updated the 'Funeral Procession' event with better rewards in the options
- Extort Subjects now available when at war
- Donate to Liege now available when liege is at war
- The 'Groom an Heir' ambition no longer requires you to be married
- Updated final 'Ambitious positive' event to be slightly more interesting
- When declining the papal request to switch to Papal Investiture, the Pope may now excommunicate you
- Rank 2 and 3 education outcomes are now more common
- Become King ambition now only lets chancellors fabricate one kingdom claim
- AI no longer calls all allies into war, but only tries to get more than 1.25 times the opponent's strength
- Changed age to set childhood focus to 6 so you can also choose an educator at the same time
- Pagan nomads no longer suffer from pagan defensive attrition (made it a define called NOMAD_SUFFER_PAGAN_ATTRITION)
- It's now possible to demand religious conversion of landless courtiers even while at war
- Moved the Theology and Hunting focus events to 'on_focus_pulse'
- Seduction Focus: The rebuff opinion modifier no longer lasts forever
- Boosted the opinion effects of giving gifts and of the "Improve Relations" councillor job
- Even with the law that allows revocation and retraction from religious enemies, their religious brethren among your vassals will now still be upset
- You no longer get Pagan homeland attrition if you're allies
- Made Agnatic the normal default gender succession law again, except in Christian realms or when you have equality laws, or the new game rule
- Blocked barons from having Agnatic-Cognatic succession (it's an inheritance mess)
- Rulers of all religions are now allowed to convert to the attacker's religion during holy wars, if their Moral Authority is much lower
- The Family Focus (Way of Life) can now also remove rivalries between close family members
- Exiled characters should no longer join courts of characters in seclusion, or court of the banisher's vassal
- Characters can no longer escape from House Arrest
- Monthly prestige/piety province modifiers are now added to the character
- Most of the minor titles can now be made available for female characters as well, provided the correct laws or game rules are in place
- Frail now has a small health penalty
- When a Tyranny war is lost while the Conclave DLC is enabled, the title revocation law will be revoked
- Intrigue Focus: Spy On: Nerfed the chances of abduction and murder unless you are a Master Schemer
- Added 1 Health to the Theology Focus
- AI Nomads will now Tribalize if they push too far outside the steppe IF they don't hold much territory in the steppe region + not many castles/cities
- When Nomads Tribalise they now culture/religion convert new provinces based on population/manpower
- When a Nomad Tribalizes a custom kingdom will be created if they would end up as duke rank or lower
- Nomads who Tribalize now get a small amount of event troops
- Changed the Eunuch Councilor events so that they are slightly better and show up in the event option so you can click them and check their stats before deciding
- Carousing Focus: You can now invite people to a new party 90 days after the last one (down from 500 days)
- Raised chance of reincarnation events for Indian religion group
- Changed the Jewish Councilor events so that they are slightly better and show up in the event option so you can click them and check their stats
- Lowered the war contribution that all theocracies and holy orders get as attackers in Great Holy Wars
- Powerful vassals will now only be angry that they haven't been given a position on the council if they're eligible for such a position, or they've recently been fired from the council
- Horse Lords: Unlocked the 'Perform Sky Burial' decision for non-Nomadic rulers of the Mazdan religious group
- Tanistry is now available without Late Feudal Administration, both for Feudal and Tribal Celtics
- Fixed firing Advisors applying the "Revoked Honorary Title" opinion modifier on top of the "Fired from Council" opinion modifiers
- Merchant republics can now always move their capital to a city if their current capital is a castle
- Reintroduced the Bankruptcy character modifier, which reduces army morale by 25% when a ruler has negative wealth
- Councilors who have promised council support to someone will now vote their conscience if the person they're supporting is abstaining
- Commanders can now only be relieved via the Relieve Commander interaction and the Minor Titles screen, which unlike the Revoke Honorary Title interaction, do not incur an opinion penalty
- Retreating enemy armies are no longer considered hostile for the purpose of disbanding units
- Adjusted the 'opinion_unfaithful_husband' opinion modifier
- Adjusted the 'acknowledged_bastard' opinion modifier
- Doubled the positive opinion modifiers from granting landed titles to someone
- Vassals are now grateful when you build buildings in their Holdings
- Viceroyalty succession now overrides all succession law opinion modifiers for that title, since succession law has no effect
- If succession law affects both the youngest and oldest child, and someone is both, they now always get the best opinion modifier
- Fixed heirs not getting positive opinion modifiers from succession laws (E.G., oldest_child_opinion in primogeniture)
- Visigothic culture will no longer split when in a powerful Visigoth realm
- Ladies can now gain the viking trait(s)
- Switching religious branch as an Indian religion will now also switch that of your close kin (if non-zealous)
- The Magyars have a significantly larger army in the 867 invasion of Hungary, they will now win more often than not
- Hungarians led by the Árpád dynasty will always want to settle in Hungary if they have the chance
- When the historical Magyars settle in Hungary, more provinces will convert to Hungarian
- Dynamic mercenaries are no longer prevented from marrying
- Even Malcontent voters will now vote for additional council power laws, as it means they'll have more to say 'no' about
- Prisoners from major revolts can now be executed and released
- Significantly increased the chance of vassals joining Grand Tournaments/Furusiyyas
- Reduced the number of unnecessary courtiers generated; should somewhat improve performance
- Redid the Varangian Guard events from MTTH events to yearly pulse events
- Added AI weights to event HL.10531, where a mercenary leader would accept or decline an invitation to a feast, to make it less random
- Moved event SoA.5219 to yearly pulse from MTTH
- Increased the prestige gain from 'Groomed to Perfection'
- Moved the SoA 'wicked priest' events to the bi-yearly pulse from MTTH
- Retreating from battles and sieges now starts the day after you right-click, so that you can cancel it on the same day if you misclick
- Tribals who are Tengri/Altaic will now raise more Light Cavalry and less Heavy Infantry in their summoned Tribal Armies
- William now starts with slightly more Heavy Infantry in "The Stamford Bridge" bookmark, to give him a higher chance of gaining England
- Rulers can now change crown laws every 50 years, rather than once per lifetime (cooldown still removed on death)
- Opinion of predecessor is now also inherited in elective government types if the successor is a close relative of, or in the same dynasty as, the old ruler
- Crusades on titles without a crusade weight are now less likely if said title is not adjacent to territory of the crusader's religion
- Now possible to ask one's liege to press one's claim even if the liege council isn't allowed to vote on war declaration
- Courtiers who have minor titles, friends, lovers, consorts or rivals are now excluded from the court pruning system
- Immortal characters are now immune to pruning
- If subjugation wars are invalidated, the 'once per lifetime' subjugation is now refunded
- If a Muslim Invasion is invalidated, the piety will be refunded

Horse Lords:
- When conquering Nomad land (empty provinces) as a non-Nomadic character, the following will happen:
    - A basic Tribal holding will be constructed
    - The Nomad culture and religion will be preserved in the province
    - A 'Nomad Agitation' province modifier will be added, slightly increasing provincial revolt risk
- On succession, if a character holds provinces with Nomad Agitation they will automatically secede from the realm unless one of the following is true:
    - A Castle or City holding has been constructed in the province
    - (Only if Tribal) At least 2 buildings have been constructed in the province's Tribal Holding
- Provinces that secede because of Nomad Agitation will spawn a new Nomad ruler as per the culture/s of the released province/s
- If a newly seceded Nomad Ruler borders a Nomad of the same culture, they will join them as a Clan Chief
- If a Nomad conquers a province with Nomad Agitation, the modifier will be removed

- Raiding Adventurers can now properly invade & claim land from Nomads
    - If they are the same culture as the target, they will become a Nomadic Clan Chief
    - If they aren't the same culture they will become a Tribal Vassal

- Now when you choose to 'Settle as Tribal' as a Nomadic realm your Clan Chiefs will settle along with you

- The 'Pillage Holding' decision has been remade, it will now pillage the selected holding progressively (once every 6 months) until it's destroyed
    - When a holding is destroyed from pillaging you get an event containing some flavor
    - You can now pillage several holdings in the same province at once
    - You can at any time choose to 'Stop Pillaging' a holding by using a targeted decision
    - The Revolt Risk associated with pillaging is now capped at 30%
    - Claiming a pillaged province as a non-nomad now clears the revolt risk (other penalties still apply)
    - The revolts that spawn from pillaged provinces are now significant (no more 60-man whack-a-mole uprisings)
    - You can no longer choose to pillage enemy holdings manually, instead it's triggered by event (gain gold or prestige)

- When choosing to settle as a Nomad the provinces that flip to your culture will now try to border each other
- The AI logic for when Nomads want to settle has been changed slightly, certain Nomad personalities will take longer to settle
- If a settling Nomad has only one vassal of king-tier, they will now usurp that character's kingdom rather than create a custom empire

- The Silk Road has received the following changes:
    - The Silk Road has been extended by adding a new branch from Lut - passing through Rayy and Tabriz - to Trebizond
    - The southern part of the Silk Road has been updated to also pass through Dhofar, Socotra, Busaso and Taizz on the way to Alexandria
    - Increased the base wealth of the Silk Road to 122 from 100, to account for added provinces

That's all for now, but if you haven't already seen them, be sure to check out the various preview videos which are starting to appear on Youtube. Next week I will post the rest of the changes as well as showing the new Steam Achievements.
RIP promo art.png
Finally, here's some eyecandy to remind you of your impending demise
 
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@Darkrenown, Are barons being blocked from using Agnatic-Cognatic moddable? I'm asking because in my personal mod have realms that use the female friendly gender laws (Absolute Cognatic, Enatic-Cognatic, and Enatic), and thus those realms have a need for baronesses. Also is it too late to include modding support for matronymics in the Cultures file / folder?

The baron-block is just a trigger in the law potential, so entirely moddable.

It's certainly too late to add matronymics for 2.6, but you could always ask Divine in the modding forum how plausible adding it in general is.

As wonderful as the introduction of options is, it does worry me a bit. I fear that present, and maybe future, "unpopular" and divisive features will simply have an off button, rather than spending more time improving the new feature. I personally like the introduction of defensive pacts but I wish the scaling was better and that opinion and diplomacy played a part in who joins, now I fear it will just stay as it is.

Well we don't particularly like to add things we think will just be disabled by most people, so in general we'll be assuming people use the default settings and try to make sure those features are good enough people want to use them.
 
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@Darkrenown, Are barons being blocked from using Agnatic-Cognatic moddable? I'm asking because in my personal mod have realms that use the female friendly gender laws (Absolute Cognatic, Enatic-Cognatic, and Enatic), and thus those realms have a need for baronesses. Also is it too late to include modding support for matronymics in the Cultures file / folder?
Wait, so does that mean I can't abuse cognatic by giving my over-limit baronies to 60 years old lowborn women? damn.
 
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Well we don't particularly like to add things we think will just be disabled by most people, so in general we'll be assuming people use the default settings and try to make sure those features are good enough people want to use them.

I get that, and The Reaper's Due and it's patch looks great and fixes or improves many of my long - term pet peeves, but is that it for defensive pacts? they stay as they are?
 
- Gave Berber culture 'allow_looting = yes' and 'seafarer = yes'

The Barbary Pirates are finally in!

- Changed age to set childhood focus to 6 so you can also choose an educator at the same time

GENIUS

- Blocked barons from having Agnatic-Cognatic succession (it's an inheritance mess)

Never noticed it. How could it be a mess?

- Characters can no longer escape from House Arrest

For the first time in 4 years of CK2, I can choose it.

- Intrigue Focus: Spy On: Nerfed the chances of abduction and murder unless you are a Master Schemer

Shouldn't Elusive Shadows get the improved chances as well?

- Adjusted the 'opinion_unfaithful_husband' opinion modifier - Adjusted the 'acknowledged_bastard' opinion modifier

Buffed or nerfed?

- Doubled the positive opinion modifiers from granting landed titles to someone

Great!!!! 2.5 nerfs destroyed the stability of my realms. I gave entire kingdoms to landless courtiers with +20 opinion, and as soon as they got the title they would hate me, just because they are powerful vassals now. Really weird.

- Vassals are now grateful when you build buildings in their Holdings

Another wonderful change.
 
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I get that, and The Reaper's Due and it's patch looks great and fixes or improves many of my long - term pet peeves, but is that it for defensive pacts? they stay as they are?

Not entirely, there's at least one more change I want to make but it wasn't done yet for 2.6. I'm being vague as I'm not sure when or if it'll be added yet.

Never noticed it. How could it be a mess?

Shouldn't Elusive Shadows get the improved chances as well?

Buffed or nerfed?

It lead to people inheriting little baronies all over the place via their wives.

Possibly thematically, but Master Schemer is the trait that levels up via so you need to invest some time in the focus while the Elusive Shadows would be able to have the full effect instantly.

Bastard got changed from -30 to -25, husband from -100 to -50
 
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Wait, so does that mean I can't abuse cognatic by giving my over-limit baronies to 60 years old lowborn women? damn.

As @Darkrenown stated, the block is in law potential trigger and thus moddable. All you have to do is mod the effected line out and baronies can once again be able to use Cognatic succession.
 
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So, if Mazdans can always use Sky Burial, and Nomad Dharmans can use Sky Burial, shouldn't Zunists be able to use Sky Burial, at least if they're nomads? Zunism, being a remnant of Iranian Paganism lying awkwardly between the philosophy of Zoroastrianism and the gods of Hinduism, and holding aspects of both religions, it should get a feature that both religions possess, no?
 
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The baron-block is just a trigger in the law potential, so entirely moddable.

It's certainly too late to add matronymics for 2.6, but you could always ask Divine in the modding forum how plausible adding it in general is.



Well we don't particularly like to add things we think will just be disabled by most people, so in general we'll be assuming people use the default settings and try to make sure those features are good enough people want to use them.

The upside of these "divisive features" and the Options in the forthcoming patch is that the devs will be able to set up difficulty levels to please everyone, from the most hard-core gamer, all the way to the casuals.

Everything from "I-lose" buttons, to "I-win" buttons, with infinite shadings in between. And that's the best way to balance a Single-player game. Please EVERYONE, instead of turning players into armed opposing camps...
 
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- Fixed a bug that prevented vassals from joining wars against tyrants. Expect revocation wars to be more risky! (can be disabled through the define VASSALS_UNITE_AGAINST_TYRANNY)
There was a note about this, but vassals of the same faith will now be upset about religious title revocation. E.g. If you are a Sunni ruling all Catholics you can revoke a Catholic title but it will make your other Catholic vassals mad.
How mad? Will infidels join their brethren in revocation wars even if their liege had passed Free Infidel Revocation (assuming he had no other justification for revoking)?
 
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I don't think I ever mentioned re-adding CA, just adding some new laws relating to vassal warring. It will not be in for 2.6, the decisions to end individual vassal wars made it a bit less vital, but I have a half working system I hope to finish for the first post release patch (the actual effects aren't hard, just making vassal react well takes time).

I don't think free_revoke things have changed, I'd ask @Divine but he's on vacation at the moment.

Yay! KING's PEACE! :D

Thanks @Darkrenown !

Would you please look into reintroducing Crown Authority as a gateway set of Laws allowing for the passing of centralization and council laws, as well as Imperializing? As well as for when you reintroduce Kings Peace?

You could even make the strictest King's Peace law gated by High Crown and Imperial Admin.

It would re-add the flavor Crown Authority used to provide.

As for Free Revoke, I'll ask @Divine when he gets back.
 
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Yay! KING's PEACE! :D

Thanks @Darkrenown !

Would you please look into reintroducing Crown Authority as a gateway set of Laws allowing for the passing of centralization and council laws, as well as Imperializing? As well as for when you reintroduce Kings Peace?

You could even make the strictest King's Peace law gated by High Crown and Imperial Admin.

It would re-add the flavor Crown Authority used to provide.

As for Free Revoke, I'll ask @Divine when he gets back.

Why?

Crown authority was awful and it should stay removed.

What did bunching all of those things together into one arbitrary catch all law do?

Nothing, it was unwieldy, it poorly governed too many things and it was easily exploitable imo. There was no reason to ever be at absolute crown authority because the opinion penalty wasn't worth no vassal wars. There was no reason to be at high crown authority longer than it took to get primogeniture. Especially because high crown authority never guaranteed a stop to vassal wars because there were exceptions such as wars launched via plotting.

Crown authority amounted to getting primogeniture if you wanted and then floating at the sweet spot of middle or low.

The very fact that the AI wasn't or couldn't be programmed to properly understand the MULTIPLE ways in which crown authority effected it meant that it was broken. The AI was always leashed into a singular opinion of higher crown authority being more power for the liege and less for me, so boo I don't like it. Completely ignoring the succession options opened up that may actually benefit him.

I always kind of assumed that it wouldn't have been feasible to add something as complex as the AI thinking "do I want more succession options based on any number of factors or do I not want him to not have more power?"

No, it made much more sense to break the bloated umbrella law into multiple smaller laws. The flavor was never removed simply spread out.

I think that a tiered sort of thing around the existing laws like you suggest could be implemented well, but. But as what, an additional requirement? Would an additional fence between us and passing laws really be fun?

Ya know they added the overthrow faction, and the increased council power faction with Conclave. But because there is no more actual crown authority there are obviously no more factions for crown authority.

But presumably even if implemented in a layered grouping form, any reintroduction of crown authority could also come with a new faction on top of the others.
 
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Why?

Crown authority was awful and it should stay removed.

What did bunching all of those things together into one arbitrary catch all law do?

Nothing, it was unwieldy, it poorly governed too many things and it was easily exploitable imo. There was no reason to ever be at absolute crown authority because the opinion penalty wasn't worth no vassal wars. There was no reason to be at high crown authority longer than it took to get primogeniture. Especially because high crown authority never guaranteed a stop to vassal wars because there were exceptions such as wars launched via plotting.

Crown authority amounted to getting primogeniture if you wanted and then floating at the sweet spot of middle or low.

The very fact that the AI wasn't or couldn't be programmed to properly understand the MULTIPLE ways in which crown authority effected it meant that it was broken. The AI was always leashed into a singular opinion of higher crown authority being more power for the liege and less for me, so boo I don't like it. Completely ignoring the succession options opened up that may actually benefit him.

I always kind of assumed that it wouldn't have been feasible to add something as complex as the AI thinking "do I want more succession options based on any number of factors or do I not want him to not have more power?"

No, it made much more sense to break the bloated umbrella law into multiple smaller laws. The flavor was never removed simply spread out.

I think that a tiered sort of thing around the existing laws like you suggest could be implemented well, but. But as what, an additional requirement? Would an additional fence between us and passing laws really be fun?

Ya know they added the overthrow faction, and the increased council power faction with Conclave. But because there is no more actual crown authority there are obviously no more factions for crown authority.

But presumably even if implemented in a layered grouping form, any reintroduction of crown authority could also come with a new faction on top of the others.

Wow. You have no idea what I was talking about.
I was not talking about bringing back Crown Authority as it exists without Conclave.

I proposed Crown Authority be reintroduced as an overarching Law that enables the various other Laws to be passed.

This was purely to represent how in order to Centralize and Imperialize around the ruler, the Crown would have to be stronger.

You have to Strengthen the Crown in order for the King to Centralize the State, ban wars, regain various power from the Council, etc.
 
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Wow. You have no idea what I was talking about.
I was not talking about bringing back Crown Authority as it exists without Conclave.

I proposed Crown Authority be reintroduced as an overarching Law that enables the various other Laws to be passed.

This was purely to represent how in order to Centralize and Imperialize around the ruler, the Crown would have to be stronger.

You have to Strengthen the Crown in order for the King to Centralize the State, ban wars, regain various power from the Council, etc.

I wish Imperial Administration made it easier to make a centralized realm!
 
I wish Imperial Administration made it easier to make a centralized realm!

The Byzantines had more civil wars than France.
 
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