So folks, we are releasing the fifth expansion to Crusader Kings II, on Monday next week; Sons of Abraham. In the previous dev diaries, I have gone through the various features we've added in the expansion, so today I'll speak of the 2.0 patch. Usually when we release expansions for Crusader Kings II, we add a lot of free stuff in the patch as well, and this time is no exception. It's almost funny how many features we plan for the expansions that we end up putting in the patch instead, simply because they alter the core gameplay too much. Now, where to begin?

Perhaps the biggest - yet quite subtle - change we did was to reduce the amount of levies you get, particularly from your vassals. There are several changes to the rules; first off, levies from outside your de jure capital region get progressively smaller in stages (county, duchy, kingdom, empire, outside). Secondly, vassals will not give you any levies if they don't have a positive opinion of you (previously the threshold was -25). On the other hand, you now always enjoy a big opinion boost if you are being attacked by foreigners, particularly by infidels. This means that you can usually raise something approaching your theoretical max while being attacked, but not when you are doing the attacking. (Incidentally, this also means that factions tend to be less dangerous while the whole realm is under threat.) Lastly, the ruler's martial skill has a direct and significant effect on the size of the levies that can be raised from his or her demesne.



We have also added whole new feature to improve the military side of the game; terrain bottlenecks. This is a system where the defending side in a battle has sometimes found suitable terrain before combat commences. The chance of this depends on the main province terrain and leader skill (there is even a new commander trait for this.) Each flank may have a narrow approach, preventing the attackers from attacking in numbers greater than the number of flank defenders (their number at the start) during the melee phase. The main reason we added this feature is that being outflanked is now much, much more devastating than it used to be, particularly if you are being outflanked from two directions, or through your (fallen) center. We have also updated all mercenaries and holy orders so they actually have three regiments instead of one (and can thus fill a battle line on their own.) Mongols and Aztecs also arrive with more but smaller regiments, etc. What else? Oh yes, we unleashed Wiz (Martin Anward, who improved the EUIV AI) on the military AI to see if he could kick it up a notch...





Another really nice thing with the 2.0 patch is of course the addition of Ironman mode, like in Europa Universalis IV. To complement this, we added 50 Steam achievements that you can only get in Ironman mode. The multiplayer metaserver, however, will be discontinued. RIP.

Now, as you know, playing Crusader Kings II is a pretty cheerful and lighthearted experience, so we thought it was high time to bring in some much needed tragedy. Thus, there is now a chance that women might die in childbirth, either at once or after a period of illness. Infants can also be born "Sickly" (new trait), which means it is unlikely they will live past their third year. Surprisingly, we are not simply doing this out of pure malice; there are interesting gameplay effects where marriage alliances can suddenly be reset and you don't know if your sickly heir will actually survive to adulthood.

When characters convert religion, there is now a chance they will be tolerant of their old faith. These are new traits which affect the opinions of both the character and of other characters. For example, a former pagan king might get no opinion penalty versus pagans, nor will they of him.



I know I'm forgetting stuff here, but you can all read the change log for yourselves when I post it. Needless to say, it's full of bug fixes and modding improvements as well.
And in case anyone missed it, Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham will release the 18th of November.
That's all for now, but there will be a live stream with yours truly on Tuesday, the day after release!

 

[Ruwaard]

+ for nerfing blobs
+ for nerfing the center of the army
+ for dying in childbirth
(...)

I quoted it, since I was basically going to reply in similar manner anyway.

It will give them less levies from Italy, Bohemia and - if less important - Brandenburg. Should take them down a notch.

It will bring every realm down a notch, which is a good thing since in the end it is a general issue. Still would it require that every title is created, since often in the HRE the kingdom of Germany isn't created (initially). It may raise questions about some of the de jure kingdoms within de jure empires, like France and Aquitania in Francia and Germany, Lotharingia, Bavaria, Frisia and Bohemia (after 898) the HRE (the first 4 correspond with the German Kingdom, the 5th one Bohemia started out paying tribute, then they were vassals and finally as a kingdom within the Empire)... Not to mention the status of Italy and Burgundy in the HRE, on the one hand they ought to be a de jure part of the HRE, but on the other hand having lesser ties with the Empire north of the alps and even fewer than Bohemia seems about right.

Also in defensive wars they would provide more men, than in offensive wars. Maybe for offensive wars, extra help could be offered (by events) in exchange for something. Maybe if a kingdom attacks another kingdom for a duchy, if one of his vassals would have a claim on a county in that duchy, they could offer to join, in exchange for them gaining that county. Also maybe vassals, how like their liege could be allowed to do more; elements of this are in the pledge mod by Hooni.

France with Brittany and Normandy might, but the usual France without them probably won't since the HRE can raise more than twice the levies France can currently, unless the levy nerf for offensive wars is very strong. I still think it would be better if Frisia didn't exist as a de jure title and Flanders was part of France, but otherwise this patch looks amazing.

You could transfer Flanders back to France and early in the game the rest of Frisia could be merged into Lotharingia. Frisia (Friesland) might be kept around as a titular title (might become landed at creation) for dukes of Gelre and Holland. However titular titles are in general not preferred for the vanilla game.
For starts late in the period covered by the game, one could argue for bigger kingdoms like Aquitania being merged into France; and Bavaria, most of Pommerania (and maybe Lotharingia* with Frisia* too) merged into Germany (*= in many ways it was considered so, but in terms of mentality it kept a separate position, in part due to the location in the border region (also linguistically)).

 

[olvirki]

One question about modding, will you allow duchies to be outside of any dejure kingdom ? Or is it allowed already ? I just know it was impossible to have a duchy without a dejure kingdom when you released the old gods dlc.

I am btw interested in these features. Especially the child mortality . That was a thing i missed from Ck1.

 

[blaidd]

Still would it require that every title is created, since often in the HRE the kingdom of Germany isn't created (initially).

I kind of read it the other way around. If you're King of England with the capital in London then the de jure Kingdom of England is your capital region. If you also create the Kingdom of Ireland, that isn't de jure part of your capital region so you will get less troops from there. Sounds like this would discourage you from creating lots of extraneous titles since you want everything to de jure drift into the primary region.

 

[Velg]

Also - I don't know if this was asked before - but anyone knows if new levies' system is gonna be applied to your barons? Like: if the barons of province in your own demense (but outside e.g. your de jure empire) are gonna provide much smaller levies?

 

[panionios]

The levy reduction will obviously only apply to the human player. Right?

 

[SovereignGrave]

The levy reduction will obviously only apply to the human player. Right?

Why would it?

 

[Spiritraiser]

Can we gamersgate owners get the key to work in Steam too? Would be even more important now with the addition of achievements too

 

[Helios Ra]

Wait, how does this Gamers Gate DLC to Steam thing work exactly? I copy and paste stuff from my Gamers Gate installation to my Steam installation, and then I'm done? I never have to worry about Gamers Gate again and can uninstall that copy?

 

[theKing1988]

The levy reduction will obviously only apply to the human player. Right?

The AI could certainly use it too, to curb the worst AI shennanigans, like the Abbasids roflstomping everyone etc.

 

[panionios]

Why would it?

If everyone's levies are equally reduced that wouldn't be a change, would it? You would still have an equal level playing field. Unless, I understand something wrongly about the proposed changes.

 

[blackchoas]

This seems like a big nerf to the Mongols and Aztecs since not only will they spawn more spread out and as less of a doom stack but also once they exhaust their event spawned troops they will be much weaker than a normal nation of that size since they are always outside of there de jure empire since they have no de jure and will thus get the nerf in levy size

 

[theKing1988]

If everyone's levies are equally reduced that wouldn't be a change, would it? You would still have an equal level playing field. Unless, I understand something wrongly about the proposed changes.

It's a general nerf to aggresive player and AI behaviour yes, but it's also a general boost to defensive AI and player behaviour. I can't see how that puts the player at an advantage

 

[SovereignGrave]

If everyone's levies are equally reduced that wouldn't be a change, would it? You would still have an equal level playing field. Unless, I understand something wrongly about the proposed changes.

But you get a boost to your vassal's opinion of you if you're under attack, so generally the aggressor will have a smaller fraction of their men available to be called upon.

 

[Phoenix VII]

If everyone's levies are equally reduced that wouldn't be a change, would it? You would still have an equal level playing field. Unless, I understand something wrongly about the proposed changes.

Levies are only being nerfed for offensive wars, while the defender gets a major opinion boost when being attacked by foreigners or infidels. So a strong power can find itself outnumbered when attacking a medium power.

 

[Ruwaard]

I kind of read it the other way around. If you're King of England with the capital in London then the de jure Kingdom of England is your capital region. If you also create the Kingdom of Ireland, that isn't de jure part of your capital region so you will get less troops from there. Sounds like this would discourage you from creating lots of extraneous titles since you want everything to de jure drift into the primary region.

This is how Doomdark elaborated on the matter:

Say you are a king and your capital is in Essex. You get the most levies from Essex county, somewhat fewer from Essex duchy, fewer still from the kingdom of England, even fewer from the empire of Britannia, and fewest from everwhere outside the empire of Britannia.
(...)

Now my question was about situations like the Holy Roman Empire in 1066, there the Salian duke of Franconia was Holy Roman Emperor Henry (Heinrich) IV. Let say the capital is in the county of Franken* in the duchy of Franconia (= Franken), but does this then mean that whole de jure HRE is your capital region, or will the uncreated de jure kingdom of Germany play a role? So that even when kingdoms are uncreated, there can be a difference between an emperor based from Bavaria, Lotharingia, Bohemia or Germany, even when they all are a de jure part of the HRE.

 

[ray4ever]

Great news! Especially thanks to Wiz for the AI improvements! (and if you find some spare time to improve the diplomatic side of the AI I would love you even more!)

But one question remains: At what time will the dlc be released so that I can start playing?

 

[Teonod]

Really like the sympathy for pagans trait, pretty much how it worked in Scandinavia after the Kings converted.

 

[panionios]

Levies are only being nerfed for offensive wars, while the defender gets a major opinion boost when being attacked by foreigners or infidels. So a strong power can find itself outnumbered when attacking a medium power.

Didn't read that. Now that's going to be fun.

 

[Ruwaard]

Levies are only being nerfed for offensive wars, while the defender gets a major opinion boost when being attacked by foreigners or infidels. So a strong power can find itself outnumbered when attacking a medium power.

I think that a part of the reasoning behind it, is that in defensive wars, loyalty to the realm plays a bigger role than loyalty to the monarch. In short even when a character dislikes his or her current monarch, they may be inclined to defend their country.

Really like the sympathy for pagans trait, pretty much how it worked in Scandinavia after the Kings converted.

I guess, that this will come with a negative opinion modifier for Zealous characters of your ruler's current religion. Including events were some would question how sincere the conversion really was. OTOH Pagans may dislike him a bit less (some will still dislike the ruler for abandoning the old ways).

 

[Thure]

Now my question was about situations like the Holy Roman Empire in 1066, there the Salian duke of Franconia was Holy Roman Emperor Henry (Heinrich) IV. Let say the capital is in the county of Franken* in the duchy of Franconia (= Franken), but does this then mean that whole de jure HRE is your capital region, or will the uncreated de jure kingdom of Germany play a role? So that even when kingdoms are uncreated, there can be a difference between an emperor based from Bavaria, Lotharingia, Bohemia or Germany, even when they all are a de jure part of the HRE.

I would say it in Doomdarks words: You get the most levies from Franken county, somewhat fewer from Franconia duchy, fewer still from the kingdom of Germany, even fewer from the HRE, and fewest from everwhere outside the HRE.