Hi folks!

It's been a while, and I bet you're all wondering what we've been up to... Now, I can't reveal anything about the upcoming expansion quite yet, but, to tide you over, I thought I'd talk a bit about our other efforts. As you know, with every expansion comes a slew of free improvements and fixes. This time the focus has been on the latter; clearing up old bugs and issues (the change log is currently 620 lines long). Sometimes, that has required us to do some fairly major code rewrites. For example, we got rid of the rule that your 'government type' was determined by the type of your Capital Holding. (You know how it was game over when you got a Temple Holding as a capital, even for a tiny period? Well, now that kind of thing cannot happen anymore.) The government form is now something more persistent, and can have various rules that override those of your religion (whether you can raid, take concubines, etc.) To go along with this change, we also reworked the portrait frames to clearly distinguish between the various government forms.

In a similar vein, almost since release we've been plagued by bugs with characters leading multiple regiments and/or flanks, which could even cause crashes. Part of the problem was that the whole system was rather strange, so we decided to consolidate it in the following way: only the ruler, the Marshal and characters you have appointed Commander (a new title) can lead flanks or your own demesne and retinue regiments. Vassal levy regiments can still be led by your loyal vassals, but a character can never both lead a flank and a regiment. Mercenaries become more useful because they come with their own, good, leaders. Flank leaders apply their martial bonus to all regiments in the flank. Oh, and the combat system has been updated under the hood to correct various quirks that few people ever noticed, but which could sometimes cause never-ending battles and such.

In the process of implementing the new Commander title, we decided we might as well throw in a more convenient Honorary Title view. This is a perfect example of how what starts as a simple bug fix can turn into a whole new little quality-of-life feature. In this whole house cleaning process, we've also made some serious optimizations to the speed and memory usage of the game.

To finish off, here are some random snippets from the change log:

Spoiler

- Revised the pagan Subjugation CB so that it completely subjugates the target but no Holdings ever change hands
- Added "Stop Seduction" and "Stop Spying" decisions
- Failing to imprison vassals of vassals now correctly forces them to abdicate and flee the realm
- AI will not join wars against spouse
- When your heir has an equal tier title to yours, _your_ laws are now copied to his primary title on succession
- Character Finder: The 'Married' filter now excludes concubines too
- Character Finder: Councillors now correctly show up too!
- Fixed a problem with allies of vassals staying in the war when the vassals's liege joins the other side
- Fixed some cases of ANY_ALL in location tooltips
- Duels now potentially give the Kinslayer trait
- The Yazidi Sheikh and Hurufi Caliph now have access to the Muslim subjugation CB and the Jihad CB
- The Paulician faith can now properly mend the schism
- The Hashshashins can now resurface after being scattered
- Fixed some issues with 'excommunication' for Yazidis
- Sons with traits blocking them from inheritance no longer count as "unlanded sons", causing prestige loss
- AI: Toned down seduction by characters with many children
- AI: Toned down impregnation chances for seduction affairs with characters with many children
- Handsome and lustful men now also populate the cabins in the wild for the pleasures of people who find them attractive

That's all for now, but from now on, we plan to post a dev diary every Tuesday, even if it's a short one!

 

[Voy]

Anything about perfomance?

Reading is fundamental.

In this whole house cleaning process, we've also made some serious optimizations to the speed and memory usage of the game.

 

[TheDungen]

"It's quiet... it's too quiet."

oh drat dev diaries are on tuesdays that would explain it.

 

[Slavicist]

I really hope some of these changes depend on the person in questions, traits.

Likewise.

Spousal wars aren't inconceivable.

 

[LFA]

Is there anything new about the patch since the first page ? I like the way it looks for now, I hope there will be plenty more.

 

[Es57]

Is there anything new about the patch since the first page ? I like the way it looks for now, I hope there will be plenty more.

There will be a new dev diary every tuesday, a priori up until dlc/patch release.

 

[LFA]

Great, I hope they are going to announce the "embark all" button tomorrow then.

 

[Rokh]

Optimization? Faster game?!

HYPE

 

[Montem]

As the Anti-China people slowly loose ground

 

[volute]

I'm very happy to see some refactoring on the core to make something more solid ! Thanks guy !

 

[artist_designer]

- Handsome and lustful men now also populate the cabins in the wild for the pleasures of people who find them attractive

Awesome.
Now can Paradox patch this into real life?

 

[TheDungen]

How will taxes be handled for the goverment systems? I assume that the three taxes remain and that they represent the goverment groups. So Iqta rulers will pay feudal, and if I add something in the republic group it pays city taxes?

 

[Dinah]

Roleplay. Heavy roleplay.

And court-building. With more events to reward slower play.


I for one am hoping for more nuanced relationship handling in this forthcoming DLC. More emphasis on bringing forward the emergent story and perhaps capturing that to the saga shown at end of game. (We invest a lot of hours in creating these stories, it'd be nice to make them easier to revisit later or to share.)

Maybe lingering marriage connection effects for the next generation, with more subtlety to the kin relationships. Prestige losses for wars between kin or kin of kin?

Perhaps mechanisms to support more nuanced kinslayer handling. Branch of family which approves and branch of family which disapproves. Intra-family factions.

Most of all, I would very much like to see more ability to integrate the story of the women in the family history. One way to do this would be through a 'person of interest' mechanism. A while back I started thinking this through as a mod, but as I've never made a mod and I'm unlikely to be able to make time to learn how to create it, I'll throw the notes in below*.

This too relates to household and service as a theme. Mostly about people, but perhaps place comes in as well. (Which had me wondering if there was any concept like a de jure dynasty; beyond claim, I mean.) Also would love some sort of 'servant of the dynasty' marker on councilors (and now perhaps commanders too) who served a minimum amount of time, with an opinion boost possibility both ways if opinion high enough during ruler lifetime (as measured at the end of life/end of service) and a potential for that trait to pass to their heirs.

Another cool thing it'd be neat to see would be survival of a disease increasing resistance to that disease within that bloodline (or at least for next generation(s) [child's resistance as % of parents]).




*Mod idea notes

Tapestry

We are born in story and we die in story, or else we are forgotten.


###
The lesser role of women has been lamented by many players——"What can I do with my daughters?"——but the way to solve that problem and still keep the historical feeling of Crusader Kings II is not to make all women characters behave like the male ones. The solution is to reveal the life of these women which has been taking place in the background all along.

Women are there at the birth of every character, obviously, and at the death.
Beginning and end, they wash off the blood and send you into this world, or the next.

Between times they keep the daily life of the great households running smoothly, and they watch, they remember, and they stitch their remembrances into tapestry.

###

Game mechanics changes:

[] 2 more women in courts at start.

[] Court size can grow up to 35 before courtiers receive reduced fertility.
[COURT_SIZE_CHILD_PENALTY_THRESHOLD]

New mechanic: Common Thread
This is a connection between two characters which arises out of major life events and which can be broken only through betrayal.

Common Thread between two characters:
- increases their opinion of each other [+5];
- increases their likelihood to support each others' plots [Factor: Common Thread, Value: +1] (except against those with whom the potential supporting plotter also has a Common Thread);
- increases their willingness to end or stop backing a plot when requested by the other;
- decreases their likelihood to support a plot against the other;
- decreases their likelihood to declare war on the other;
- increases their likelihood to answer a call to arms from the other;
- decreases their likelihood to plot against the other;
- decreases their likelihood to duel the other;
- decreases their likelihood to imprison, banish, or execute the other;
- increases their likelihood to release the other from prison;
- increases their likelihood to consider the other for important roles (councilor, guardian, ...);
- increases their likelihood to consider the other for newly granted titles;
- increases a parent's likelihood to legitimize their bastard child with whom they have a Common Thread;
- decreases their likelihood to become rivals (and will be broken by an event which succeeds in making them rivals);
- increases their likelihood to accept an invitation to court [Factor: Common Thread, Value: +1];
- increases their likelihood to agree to an arrangement of marriage or bethrothal [Factor: Common Thread, Value: +1];
- increases their likelihood to agree to a proposal of guardianship where the child is the son, daughter, grandchild, niece, or nephew of someone with a Common Thread with the potential guardian;
- increases their likelihood to accept vassalization +1;
- increases the likelihood that rulers will discover assassination plots against them when their court contains characters with whom they have Common Thread;


Common Thread arises:
- between a mother and the primary assisting woman at childbirth, [The primary assisting woman is the woman in same court with best opinion of mother (must begin at greater than 21, and mother's opinion of her must begin at greater than 0) and this event gives them a chance of becoming friends];

- between a child and its nursemaid [see new mechanic below] when the mother has died before the child reaches the age of 1 AND the child has no step-mother upon the age of 6 AND the nursemaid is still in the same court as the child;

- between a child and its mentor when the child turns 16 and their mutual opinion is then 75+;

- when two characters experiencing another game event are noted to have mutual 100 opinions;

- when a character falls ill, gets a disease, is wounded, or is maimed and is cared for by someone in their court, [the caretaker is the person in the same court with the best opinion of the injured character (must be greater than 21, and injured character's opinion of them must be greater than 0)];

- when a concubine is set aside and after opinion adjustment the mutual opinion is still over 75;

- when a lover is broken up with and after opinion adjustment the mutual opinion is still over 75;



Common Thread is broken:
- when two characters experiencing another game event are noted to have mutual -100 opinions;

- when one of the characters betrays the other by declaring war on, plotting against, attempting to imprison, banishing, or starting a duel with the other;

- also when, unless the two characters would still have 75+ mutual opinion afterwards, one of the characters declares war on, plots against, attempts to imprison, banishes, executes, or starts a duel with the other's parent, spouse, or child;


Other new mechanics:

- Decision: Commission a great tapestry [[[structurally base on Raise Runestone]]]
Available to a ruler who has not previously taken this decision (once in a lifetime).
Trigger an event which will fire in 2 years giving 100 prestige as well as a [+5] bonus to general relations for 2 years.
May choose subject: commemorate battle (if player has won a battle or if their parent or child died in battle), celebrate founding of duchy, kingdom, or empire title (if player or parent founded such and has it as current primary title), honor your dynasty (which grants +5 prestige to each living dynasty member), or illustrate your faith (which grants +15 piety and improves opinion [XXX] with your church vassals.
Whichever subject is chosen, this event also grants +20 prestige to all noble female characters and +5 prestige to all lowborn female characters in your court over the age of 11 ("the honorable needlewomen").
If the ruler dies, they are buried with the unfinished tapestry.

- Ambition: Gather the threads of trust
Available to female ruler age >45, not paranoid or slow or imbecile or lunatic. Goal is to gain 3 new Common Thread connections. Bonus 100 prestige, nickname "Mother of [realm]".
Triggers event chain with opportunities for new connections/forgiveness.

- Event: isolated new mother
If no primary assisting woman is available at childbirth, a mother has a significant probability (25%) of developing Depression.
[[[Add explanatory event if this occurs to mother of player's child. And, if possible, allow compensatory event of bringing a woman to court to assist who might relieve the mother's isolation.]]]

- Relationship: nursemaid
Triggered when mother dies before child turns 1 and a woman with Common Thread with her is in the same court. Removed when a stepmother is added or the child turns 6.

 

[Dinah]

I'm also deeply hoping one of the many bug fixes will be getting rid of that creepy sentimental thing where you've got a Family focus in WoL and you're communicating your parental advice to your DECEASED child in long, heartfelt letters. Ah, those important conditionals in event triggers!

 

[Sunbro BigBoss]

I'm also deeply hoping one of the many bug fixes will be getting rid of that creepy sentimental thing where you've got a Family focus in WoL and you're communicating your parental advice to your DECEASED child in long, heartfelt letters. Ah, those important conditionals in event triggers!

If they fix it, I hope that they allow the event to happen if your character is a lunatic.

 

[Mikalos]

It's always the new accounts that do it.

and it's a post like 5 pages back too that they replied too.

 

[LordPeter]

I'm also deeply hoping one of the many bug fixes will be getting rid of that creepy sentimental thing where you've got a Family focus in WoL and you're communicating your parental advice to your DECEASED child in long, heartfelt letters. Ah, those important conditionals in event triggers!

They fixed it. But I bet they forgot to enable it for lunatics. Pity.

Just read the patchlog (if you have e few hours freetime...), it's mentioned there somewhere. Gods, did I really read the entire patchlog now? XD

 

[TheDungen]

They fixed it. But I bet they forgot to enable it for lunatics. Pity.

Just read the patchlog (if you have e few hours freetime...), it's mentioned there somewhere. Gods, did I really read the entire patchlog now? XD

The patch log is up?

 

[Sunspawn]

The patch log is up?

It's stickied I think.

EDIT: No, but there is a thread called Patch 2.4 Changelog. Wonder what that is about.