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CK2 Dev Diary #61: The Dragon Throne

Hello folks!

The Swedish summer vacations are drawing to a close and I’m back and eager to talk some more Crusader Kings! What better way to kick off the end of summer than by revealing the theme of the next expansion? Yes my friends, it’s China! Now, before you get all emotional one way or the other, we’re not actually going to expand the map farther east. We considered doing that, long and hard, but eventually decided on a different approach that would not strain performance and stability beyond reason. As I mentioned in Dev Diary #51, it bothers me that the eastern edge of the map just cuts off in such an unnatural way. Playing in the Orient, you should always feel like you’re in the shadow of the Dragon. It should be an interesting and dynamic region right in the center of the Old World. So, we came up with the idea of adding China as a political entity even though you cannot actually see most of its territory.

The Dragon Throne.png


There is a new screen you can open up, which, if you’re within range of China, allows you to interact with the Emperor in various interesting ways. China can grant many wonderful boons if you’re in the emperor’s good graces, but, depending on the current status and policy of the Dragon Throne, the emperor can also decide you’d better show some respect and become a tributary state. When there is turmoil in China, displaced or fleeing armies can arrive on the map and cause all kinds of trouble. China can even seize and rule actual provinces, but the emperor leaves the governing of such areas to the Governor of the Western Protectorate (or, to be a stickler, the “Protectorate General to Pacify the West”.) Potentially, this on-map part of China can grow enormously powerful, but you should not have to worry too much as long as you enjoy the emperor’s grace…

That’s going to be all for now. I’m sure you have a million questions, but you’ll have to wait for the upcoming dev diaries. :)

Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our CK2 livestreams between 16 to 18:00 CET!
 
Is China going to be the only off-map title? Seems to me like it would make sense that after the historical events trigger Scandinavian rulers could interact with Greenland... and maybe Newfoundland, if certain things go the right way ;)

There are already events for this.

And who would rule Newfoundland or Greenland? There was no united title or realm there.
 
Those must be in the millions.
Please, provide us with your market analysis based on customer opinion that says it's a bad decision. It's fine to disagree, voice concern, or even simply not like a change. But you're claiming to speak for customers (most of whom don't actually watch the forums so "people in another thread said..." is not a good methodology) and start giving away free business advice to the publisher, show us the data you're working with, please! I am very interested in that.

Otherwise it'd make you a regular forum user without any special insight into the situation, but who makes judgement calls about other people based on their own emotional response. That's just plain boring.
 
Game Rules my friend, game rules.

Arthur

But will the rest of the features of China still be available? I mean, this really is a devil's bargain sort of thing for me. I am definitely one of the people who most wants China in the game. I want the interaction. It's just horde armies I can't stop make playing a game on the eastern part of the map pretty much unplayable. I mean, I really do hope CK3 will finally give us playable parts of China, and Asia in general. And FINALLY a cessation of the need of magically appearing hordes. That worked great back at launch to help represent the "Exception" that was the Mongols. But as soon as the map expanded then Hordes have a true base to create empires and spawn in, so less need of them. Yet... yeah, it's just a tough one for me. Especially when Hordes still seem to target Players more than the AI too.
 
So they formed part of the invading force?
I'm not sure whether they took part in war (though it seems probable). They were slaves of Mongols unil Qubilai organised them into a garrison of 3000 men in 1272. By 1309 their number rose to tenfold and were used as elite soldiers. They followed Mongols into Mongolia after Ming victory and eventually assimilated into Mongols becoming the Asud clan.
 
Who is this DLC marketed towards?

1. The China fans who don't get to play in China?

2. The people who never wanted China in the first place?

Who exactly do you believe is going to buy this DLC?

Jesus christ dude, curb your (rather poor) judgement. This is only the first look on the expansion, they might add tons of features you love. Or at least the community might love them, since your opinion seems not to be a proper indication of the way the community feels.

Seriously, check out your own agree/disagree ratios, then reconsider if you're qualified to project your sarcastic whining on the rest of us.
 
Uh... that's pretty much what all the previous threads on China have been.

Because the people who don't have any strong opinions of China definitely want to be drawn into those cesspools of hostility that have generally characterized most previous China threads.
 
This DLC is irrelevant for those who don't have the necessary DLCs to play on the eastern edge of the map though. That's a good portion of players who aren't going to buy it.

If you don't have HL that's nomads and silk road gone.

If you don't have ROI you won't be able to play as Buddhists either.

Now if you don't have this dragon throne DLC you won't be able to experience China mechanics either.

That's THREE regional DLCs needed to experience that region's mechanics.
 
This DLC is irrelevant for those who don't have the necessary DLCs to play on the eastern edge of the map though. That's a good portion of players who aren't going to buy it.
Oh, so you also know the whole content of the DLC? Please, share your sources!
 
The theme of this expansion is China. It even says so in the OP post. I take it Paradox isn't going to add super crusader mechanics in this patch. So how is China relevant to any region that's not on the eastern edge of the map?
The Nomad-focused DLC came with Tributary mechanics & the Silk Road. Which are relevant to every region. The Byzantine-focused DLC came with Retinues. Except for Sunset Invasion every DLC came with content relevant to a wide variety of game starts. How do you know this one will be different?
 
This DLC is irrelevant for those who don't have the necessary DLCs to play on the eastern edge of the map though. That's a good portion of players who aren't going to buy it.

If you don't have HL that's nomads and silk road gone.

If you don't have ROI you won't be able to play as Buddhists either.

Now if you don't have this dragon throne DLC you won't be able to experience China mechanics either.

That's THREE regional DLCs needed to experience that region's mechanics.
This dev diary just mentions one of the features of the upcoming DLC and the same could be said of many of the other DLC. Horse Lords and Rajas are heavily reliant on Sword of Islam for a full experience but I don't think that influenced sales a whole lot. And in this case Horse Lords, just one DLC, would be really required for access to the far-east.
 
This dev diary just mentions one of the features of the upcoming DLC and the same could be said of many of the other DLC. Horse Lords and Rajas are heavily reliant on Sword of Islam for a full experience but I don't think that influenced sales a whole lot. And in this case Horse Lords, just one DLC, would be really required for access to the far-east.

Not really. If you bought RoI you could play in the entire Indian region. That's an entire-subcontinent. If you don't convert to Islam then it doesn't matter. As far as I can see the China DLC only adds the western protectorate, which is a puny area of the map to play in that has zero effect on anyone else.

Nomads are a much broader category, silk roads don't affect Europe at all, and tributary is just one feature. RoI added nothing for non-Indians.
 
Thank you THANK YOU GOD for not letting Paradox add the Chinese landmass. I'd like to keep this game at least slightly relevant to Crusaders.
 
Again, stop assuming you've seen every feature of this DLC.
Or stop trolling.

Well ok, please hate me for assuming a DLC who's theme is CHINA, will add mechanics relating to CHINA, and as far as I know CHINA had very minimal direct influence on the map outside of the eastern edge. Since you cannot play in actual CHINA, then this DLC will have no effect on places such as IRELAND or any of the vanilla map area.

If you can prove to me this wasn't true I will gladly change my opinion. Khitans don't count, they're nomads.
 
It seems that guy was a main patron of all previous china threads? Based on comparable amount of hatespeech from him and everyone else in this thread.