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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!
 
First off.. I think China in anyway is great... even if we don't really have it. Still it will add more to the game, I'm sure. And secondly, if I remember correctly, you also plan to do something for Muslims in this expansion? I really hope for a Muslim facelift, they really need it. The portraits and the late units look like they came from a different game )) I'm planning for a crusade campaign and I really want a cool enemy to look at )
 
"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."

Sengoku 2 confirmed?;);)
 
So, question here.
Was it ever actually confirmed that this DLC will be about China, specifically? I skipped about six or seven pages here, but from what I saw on the dev diaries, it seems mostly Tibet with an off-map 'China' added in due to proximity.
theirs been no confirmation its about china but at the least its focused on the east/northeast portion of the map going off of Tibet+ offmap China
 
theirs been no confirmation its about china but at the least its focused on the east/northeast portion of the map going off of Tibet+ offmap China
Reread the Dev Diary please.
 
Yes, but no other DLC required TWO other regional DLCs to get the full experience. If you do not have HL or ROI that's a large part of the eastern map that's unplayable.
India doesnt connect to China so its not neccesary, the North-Eastern buddhists will get a different version of Buddhism so you dont need Rajas for them either and as Thure mentioned above me you can play the nomads without the Horse-Lords in a more watered down version.
 
Everyone but a small minority. Seriously, look at your dislikes and at the other post's likes. You speak for almost nobody here.
Speak for yourself as much has you want, but stop acting like you represent someone. You don't.
Paradox forums are probably not as representative of all the players you want to believe. Just because a high number of European players don't understand English, don't speak in English etc ... so will go on their national forums and probably on other sites to react. Basing the hosting of a dev-diary on the paradox forum is in my opinion a mistake. The ratio of likes / dislikes is quite important so a certain number of people are disappointed on this forum (, I do not say that I share or do not share their opinion is just a finding). So I do not think we can say that because the posts complaining about this dlc collect a lot of dislike they are disapproved by a majority of players.
 
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India doesnt connect to China so its not neccesary, the North-Eastern buddhists will get a different version of Buddhism so you dont need Rajas for them either and as Thure mentioned above me you can play the nomads without the Horse-Lords in a more watered down version.

How do you know NEBuddhists will get their own version of Buddhism? Do you work at Paradox? Was it announced in a previous dev diary?

Also, yes, great you get to play as nomadic not-nomads.
 
Paradox forums are probably not as representative of all the players you want to believe. Just because a high number of European players don't understand English, don't speak in English etc ... so will go on their national forums and probably on other sites to react. Basing the hosting of a dev-diary on the paradox forum is in my opinion a mistake. The ratio of likes / dislikes is quite important so a certain number of people are disappointed on this forum (, I do not say that I share or do not share their opinion is just a finding). So I do not think we can say that because the posts complaining about this dlc collect a lot of dislike they are disapproved by a majority of players.


Another thing to take into accout is a good portion of players may not use this forum, I know there are largish communities of CK2 players that congregate on reddit and 4chan for example that prefer to discuss things there rather than use these forums and then theirs the Steam discussions...
 
But why should you play there at all, if you are so appalled?

You shouldn't, which is why this DLC is so bad. If you don't have two other DLCs, much of the content related to this one is gone. At least with ROI you could play in India, with this "China themed" expansion you can't even play in China. So what's even the point of it?

How many people actually play in the Tarim Basin?

Another thing to take into accout is a good portion of players may not use this forum, I know there are largish communities of CK2 players that congregate on reddit and 4chan for example that prefer to discuss things there rather than use these forums and then theirs the Steam discussions...

The largest posts on the reddit threads are lamenting how shit it is that Paradox isn't improving the core game.
 
Hey looks nice. Question though... Will the CK2 engine ever be updated to the HOI4 one? I've been getting into a lot of CK2 multiplayer but sometimes its just unworkable with mods like HOI4 is. Checksum problems. Desync. Hot joint and all that those things that make HOI4 way much better for multiplayer.

I would pay for a new DLC for a new multiplayer engine.
 
Another thing to take into accout is a good portion of players may not use this forum, I know there are largish communities of CK2 players that congregate on reddit and 4chan for example that prefer to discuss things there rather than use these forums and then theirs the Steam discussions...
There's also a bunch of Russian forums.
 
You shouldn't, which is why this DLC is so bad. If you don't have two other DLCs, much of the content related to this one is gone. At least with ROI you could play in India, with this "China themed" expansion you can't even play in China. So what's even the point of it?

How many people actually play in the Tarim Basin?

I do, saving the tocharians from extinction and shepherding them though the mongol invasions is quite fun so is forging a central Asian trade empire as the sogdians
 
Some reddit posts:

I think this is even worse than just ad China as map.

If it is only an interaction with China and I don't care how got this implementation is, I won't buy it. Because I do not see any game I played so far in which I would need this.

So sometimes some chinaman pops up and demands tribute or he'll bowl you over? Woo even more cheap as the average Stellaris DLC.

China now has more unique mechanisms than the Holy Roman Empire...

I honestly don't see the point of this if they wouldn't expand the map.

Not a fan of this implementation

Until you let us play as china not interested.

I don't think it's worth even having Chinese mechanics if I can't storm the walls of Nanjing and burn the Emperor alive. Just my 2 cents.

hope this gets scrapped. can't even play kublai khan and convert to islam 0/10

China without China to please everyone. Or no one. People are never happy.

This doesn't look like this fits in with the Crusader Kings theme. In a game about characters and titles, having an off-map entity feels odd. I want to keep EU4's system of manas 'n modifiers away from CK2.

Sounds like an interesting mechanic, there's a lot of mods that have "off-map" characters implemented, and it's never really worked all that well IMHO.

I'm not really excited about this.

It's going to be a major new gameplay interface in order to, possibly hamfistedly, wrench in some Chinese influence. I can't see this greatly improving my gameplay.

This just feels uncomfortable.

Honestly seems like a waste of an expansion. It's a relatively unimportant addition to a small part of the map, and a part that's already not played a whole lot.

This is disappointing... It looks like they're just wasting an expansion on half-assedly including China when they could've done so much better.

Ugh. Pass

Goddamn these are going to be some of the last updates ever given to CK2, and they're still making the ocean wider instead of deeper.

Give us unique HRE mechanics

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I would prefer if they gave new mechanics to european nations like the HRE instead of china, this is crusader kings after all.

I like the idea but making a china themed DLC without actually expanding the map is a little silly, I guess people with lower end rigs will be happy at least.

I would have preferred they added a real China, Korea and Japan. If the worry is that adding that would slow down the game, then have it as a separate map that goes from India to Japan.

I'd have been much more enthusiastic for a standalone expansion with Asia rather than some hamfisted extra interface to worry about.

I would have preferred they add China itself, and maybe some more of west Africa.

Not for me thanks

Not buying this. Completely uninterested -- or at least as interested in this as I am in the Aztec DLC, which is little to none. This seems like trying to placate the CHina demand while, well... not.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF POSTS ARE NEGATIVE OR APATHETIC

THE VAST MAJORITY WANT EITHER:

CORE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

CHINA MAP
 
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How do you know NEBuddhists will get their own version of Buddhism? Do you work at Paradox? Was it announced in a previous dev diary?

Also, yes, great you get to play as nomadic not-nomads.

How many people still actively playing the game do you think DON'T have most of the DLCs?
 
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