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CK2 Dev Diary - The Rules of the Game

Well people, what do you know? I needed a break from the Stellaris crunch, so here’s an unscheduled dev diary! All the hubbub about Defensive Pacts and Shattered Retreats got me thinking about an old ambition I’ve had to improve the game set-up screens in order to allow players to customize their experience without having to resort to modding. The idea is inspired by games like Civilization and the Second Wave DLC for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which allow players to change various advanced options and settings for a different experience in the game. I really like such options and typically make good use of them myself.

Now, of course there is such a thing as “the way the game was meant to be played”. That is, how the designers made the game and like to play it themselves. However, variety is the spice of life, and after 11 Crusader Kings II expansions things are not as clear-cut anymore. It’s actually pretty funny that I’ve been using a small personal mod for CK2 for awhile myself. There are some downsides to modding and using mods though:
  • It requires awareness that it’s possible, and where to find existing mods. The modding scene is a jungle.
  • It takes a modicum of extra effort and skill.
  • It might not feel quite legitimate (it can feel a bit like cheating) and you might not get any Achievements.
  • Mods typically do not have the same level of support as the base game. Many become fossilized or are otherwise problematic.
For these reasons especially, I think that adding a bunch of Paradox-approved, fully supported in-game rule variations is a good idea. Thus, when you start a new game, you are now presented with several interesting options. Most of them are simple flavor variations, but some are more fundamental and will disable Achievements in Ironman mode. Here’s the list of options we are currently showing in the new screen (still a work in progress though):
  • Sandbox vs Ironman
  • Shattered Retreats: On/Off
  • Defensive Pacts: On/Off
  • Gender Equality: Default/Historical/All/Players
  • Sunset Invasion: 13th Century/Random/Off
  • Mongol Invasion: Historical/Random/Off
  • Raiding: Historical/Unrestricted/None
  • Epidemics: Dynamic/Historical/Deadly
  • “Supernatural” Events: On/Off
  • Adventurers: Normal/Rare/None
  • Provincial Revolts: Normal/Rare/None
  • Regencies: On/Off
  • De Jure Drift: Default/Restricted/Off
  • Dynamic Kingdoms and Empires: On/Off
  • Diplomatic Range: On/Off
Red options disable Achievements.

Crusader Kings II - Rules 01.jpg


Our new rule system is itself fully moddable, so that modders can use the same system with pretty much any options they might want!

Crusader Kings II - Rules 02.jpg


I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Are there any rule variations you think we’ve missed, or that you would really like to see?
 
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eXistenZ2 said:
We break the game horribly first, charge €200 for it, and then fix it. Aren't we great?!
Click to expand...

At least they fixed it.

In the bestest way imaginable!

They're turning away from global one-size-fits-all nerfs, and turning to making gameplay a more personalized experience.

That's wonderful!
 
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vandevere said:
At least they fixed it.
Click to expand...

If they were a bit more carefull instead of just piling to grab the cash, the donkey's back wouldn't have snapped. And there wouldn't need to be any fixing


Thats like being kicked in the balls for no reason, but everything is wonderfull because you get a free restructuring surgery and an icecream at the end.....
 
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DominusNovus said:
No, its not. First of all, 'okto-' is both greek and latin for eight. Given that they're both Indo-European languages that developed on adjacent Mediterranean peninsulas, it should come as no surprise that there is a fair amount of overlap. Second, '-pus' comes from the greek for foot, '-pous'. Not the Latin, which is '-pes' (which, again, is derived from the same source).

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/octopus
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Yep, I stand corrected.
 
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eXistenZ2 said:
If they were a bit more carefull instead of just piling to grab the cash, the donkey's back wouldn't have snapped. And there wouldn't need to be any fixing


Thats like being kicked in the balls for no reason, but everything is wonderfull because you get a free restructuring surgery and an icecream at the end.....
Click to expand...

But they're fixing it. That's the important thing. Sure they made a mistake and went a nerf, or two, too far.

But they're doing things right again. Would I rather they never made the mistake in the first place?

Yeah... I would rather they didn't. But they're turning around and undoing their mistake. Would you rather they didn't fix their mistake?
 
eXistenZ2 said:
We break the game horribly first, charge €200 for it, and then fix it. Aren't we great?!
Click to expand...
What? That doesn't add up, even if you are for a weird reason counting previous unrelated actual content and graphics/music/random packs plus buying everything at full price for some reason looking things up it would cost half as much. And a quarter of that is what I understand most people pay.
 
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Dynamic kingdoms and empires? Is that just de jure drift/name changing or is it more like Germania -> HRE?
 
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Will there be any change to ruler designer impacting achievements?

I assume because you can give yourself a real powerful start is why it disables it, but my preferred gameplay style is "create my own house and see if I can grow from there."

As an alternative, maybe an option for "new house" that basically gives you a county in the realm you pick, as though you had just gotten given the land maybe even with assigned/default traits for the first character so you can control for it. I dunno I just love creating my own house and seeing me spread the glory! ^_^

Worst case I just play without achievements :p
 
alanschu said:
Will there be any change to ruler designer impacting achievements?

.....but my preferred gameplay style is "create my own house and see if I can grow from there."
Click to expand...

I guess that's what the Customization Pack is for.
Though admittedly while i'm not sure if you still get achievements when using it, i believe to recall that only the Ruler Designer disables achievements.
Can anyone confirm or deny ?
 
Thure said:
You get the fix even without buying any expansion or DLC...
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Which is pretty fair, since we got the controversial "features" whether or not we bought any expansion or DLC.
 
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heliostellar said:
Which is pretty fair, since we got the controversial "features" whether or not we bought any expansion or DLC.
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That said the nature of mechanics changing as a result of patches isn't foreign either. We can go around in circles like this.

At some point it probably makes the most sense to stay at a particular patch as this is functionally exactly the same as if Paradox simply ceased development on the game (which typically happens to all games).
 
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alanschu said:
That said the nature of mechanics changing as a result of patches isn't foreign either. We can go around in circles like this.

At some point it probably makes the most sense to stay at a particular patch as this is functionally exactly the same as if Paradox simply ceased development on the game (which typically happens to all games).
Click to expand...

Except that in a game like CK2, everyone wants that sweet, sweet optimization...
 
Request:

I would like to see some customization of the difficulty settings. I'm very reluctant to play the game on any setting harder than "normal" because on a harder difficulty I find it hard to predict the outcomes of battles. However, I'm more than willing to take a penalty hit to default opinions, and possibly other variables that the difficulty setting modifies. For that reason it would be good to break down the difficulty settings into multiple variables.
 
Doomdark said:
I hear you, but I think the time to implement that feature would be better spent optimizing the game instead.
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why would it be so hard to implement? I mean, there's already some mods doing that and it doesn't seem that complicated (of course, I have no idea). Is it because of game balance?

This is a GREAT feature anyway. Thank you very much for hearing us.
 
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