Crusader Kings II - Dev Diary 4 - Regnal Numbers

[Doomdark]

Hello again folks!

This diary will be a bit on the short side due to the frenzy at the office this week, but since it recently came up on the forum, I thought I'd say a little bit about regnal numbers. One of the nice little touches in Europa Universalis III (and its predecessors) is that kings have proper regnal numbers. This feature was missing from the original Crusader Kings, but I am pleased to announce that it will be fully implemented in Crusader Kings II. The way it works is that the first names of actual scripted holders in the character database are counted for each landed title at game start. Regnal numbers are only displayed for Dukes and above, which includes the Pope (a kingdom tier title.) The Holy Father, however, is a bit special in that he changes name on accession. So, a character named, say, Étienne Aubert could get the name Innocent VI if he became Pope.



Somewhat related to regnal numbers is the state of a character at the time of death. In Crusader Kings II, you can browse back through dead characters and see exactly which titles they held and what regnal number they had. I'll leave you with some extra screenshots while you're waiting for the next dev diary, which will be about our beautiful new map. Failing unexpected delays, it should be posted on february 4.




Henrik Fåhraeus, Associate Producer and CKII Project Lead

 

[Doomdark]

Wheee, map screens. The angled view of the last one is fascinating. Is that only for development purposes?

The map can be rotated freely, much as in Rome (though better.)

 

[Doomdark]

I would also guess that the Baronies in the provinces will be represented by 2d artwork rather than 3d renders, judging by that last screenshot. I like that, the 3d town renders were never very interesting in EU3 and just took up space.
I'm guessing Uppland contains three towns, one church and one castle, with one unused barony "slot"?

Just be careful with drawing conclusions, this is still a pre-alpha.

 

[Doomdark]

I am impressed!

Also, a question: What is the CoA displayed below Edward's portrait in the first screenshot? Is that his demesne's CoA?

That is the (currently randomly generated) Dynasty CoA. Important dynasties like the Plantagenets will get proper pre-scripted ones eventually.

 

[Doomdark]

I'm impressed, but.. the province borders.. they're temporary, right? Please?

Yes

 

[Doomdark]

Oh i just loved the fact that the new Pope will have a regnal name and a number!!! Does papal controller get anything to say about the name or is it random picked by AI?

It's randomly picked.

 

[podcat]

Nice update! They shouldn't all be allowed to be on the same plane.


I think it would be really cool if the faces were designed so that a certain facial setup looked like Johan, one looked like Doomdark, one like Kallocain and so on...

we werent. devteam was split over 2 planes the pictures you see of characters are really really pre-alpha though. I think yonaz has only done 2 base portraits and not a lot of variation bits yet so there will be a ton more. also about the devteam faces... look carefully around when you see the final game, there might potentially be some stuff like that

 

[SolSara]

Which brings up one of the things I found annoying, especially in the later days of DV: any ruler that lived a long time (30+ years as ruler say) would end up with a huge number of traits. There needs to be some sort of throttle to keep it interesting without getting ridiculous. Something like 4-6 green traits with no limit on the red and blue ones should be the norm not the 8-10 or more I regularly see.

We have a lot of traits in CK2 and most of them will be added to the characters through events. I have tried to balance the traits by scripting the events so the character can have, say, no more than four personality traits. This will of course be tested and we will try to make sure it will create interesting characters.

They should diversify character portaits. The all dukes and earls look like brothers of Edward III.

Pre-alpha.

Btw Norse religion! Awesome! Will the mongols be buddhist? xD

Eh, no. Crusader Kings had pagan as one of the religions and we wanted to do something more with that so we added a culture group named pagan and then several new kinds of pagan religions, for example Norse.

It looks like they haven't brought many graphic artists in yet because they haven't done much work on the faces.

The artist responsible for the character portraits are currently working on the GUI, which has a higher priority.

Nice update! They shouldn't all be allowed to be on the same plane.

I think it would be really cool if the faces were designed so that a certain facial setup looked like Johan, one looked like Doomdark, one like Kallocain and so on...

Nice idea! I'll talk to Yonaz about that...

Related to the topic of regnal numbers, what about patronymics, for those cultures (Iberian, Scandinavian, Slavic, Celtic) that historically named individuals after their fathers: e.g., Sancho II, king of Castilla at the 1066 start, would have been named Sancho Fernandez, not Sancho Jimenez (his dynasty name in-game, after his distant ancestor Jimeno). I.e., Sancho, son of Fernando. For this reason, I think that surname should be differentiated from dynasty name, although I will not begrudge the devs for not complicating the naming system they have already adopted (e.g., Edward III Plantagenet).

We do have patronymics. If your character is named Jonas Karlsson and he has a son named Oscar then the son's last name will be Jonasson.

 

[SolSara]

No, it seems it would be distinct from a dynastic name, but attached to anyone who is the son of someone named Jonas.

What RedRooster81 wrote is true. We have removed a lot of old dynasty names from CK1 who had some sort of patronymics in them, except if the dynasty is named after a grandfather or so. But you may end up with a "Nilsson" or "MacDonald" if your character is a son of Nils or Donald.

 

[SolSara]

This may be a detail, but will the end of these names always be -son, or will they be country specific? Like Swedish names having -sson and Danish -sen, or? As i.e. the Scandinavian languages began to differ from one another, and from Anglo-Saxon, in the CK period, will there be differences in the name endings? Or is that too much work?

EDIT: To put it more clearly; Would the Swedish name be Nilsson, and the Danish one Nilsen (in Danish it's actually Nielsen)?

EDIT 2: And will this also include female surnames like -dottir (and -datter and so on)?

To answer EDIT and EDIT 2: Yes.

 

[Darkrenown]

We do have patronymics. If your character is named Jonas Karlsson and he has a son named Oscar then the son's last name will be Jonasson.

We should make these stack, I want to see Johan Jonhnssonssonssonssonssonsson

 

[Doomdark]

OK, some things I've noticed in the screenies:

So among the titles the former King did no have... there's no Earldom on it, so maybe Dukes and Kings will no longer have to be "Counts" of a province. Nice addition if so.

The tooltip currently only lists the three most prominent titles.

 

[Doomdark]

Thanks for the diary.
Ordinal numbers might not be exactly from the period, but nowadays we use them to describe it and it has this nice royal feel to it. So it fits in the atmosphere of the game and it helps with organization and quick overview, for which epithets -however much I'd like them in the game as well- are less suited.

Thanks. Regnal numbers were used in the period, especially the later period (remember, the game ends in 1452.) There are some early examples even from places like Scandinavia, though the use was inconsistent. In any case, regnal numbers were usually assigned to previous kings down the road.

 

[Doomdark]

If it were any other developer I would agree, but these guys somehow managed to make clouds/fog of war in DW lag even monster PCs. Paradox never fails to disappoint me with their technical incompetence.

That early and completely unfounded speculation has been denied by us from day one, and confirmed to be false numerous times by players. The lag was caused by the new achievement system (admittedly our fault, but fixed in a patch.)

 

[Doomdark]

Whether accurate for the earliest date or not, I think ordinal numbers will be good to have. In my CK1 Iberian games, I have like five Sanchos per generation and three Alfonsos

A question I have is, say my old king is named Alfonso VI, he marries a certain heiress from Aquitaine and their heir is Alphonse. Will he be known as Alphonse I or Alfonso VII when he takes the throne? Ah, the challenges of a multi-cultural family.

He would be Alphonse I, though we might have time to tweak this eventually.

 

[Doomdark]

Good question... it's 'O' for a guy and 'Ni' for a girl, BTW.

Irish patronymics are in, but it's not 'O', it's 'Mac'. O'Hara actually means grandson of Hara.

 

[Doomdark]

I hope this 'random coat of arms to lesser dynasties' will be moddable.
somehow I fear that apart from english and french, not many will fit the 'important' criteria...

They are fully moddable.

 

[Doomdark]

*starting to turn blue from holding my breath*

Breathe man, breathe...

 

[Doomdark]

I don't know what is planned for the next dev diary, but I would like to know a little bit more about ambitions and plots, if possible.
May I ask why Vladimir hated Leto?

I'll hold off on that one until the interface is done. Don't hold your breath please.

 

[Doomdark]

While we're on breatholding, could you please confirm or deny a family tree?

No