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Hi all! I am Karolus Magnus, programmer at Crusader Kings II. Now is finally the time for my first dev diary! Today I will be talking about the Silk Road and Raiding Adventurers.

With Horse Lords we are adding in an addition to the trade system which is the major trade route of the Silk Road that stretched all the way from Cathay to the Italian States. It does not require you to be a Patrician or Republic however to utilize this system. As long as you own the provinces yourself you are allowed to build Trade Posts along the trade route no matter what government form you are. You can upgrade these trade posts to make the Silk Road worth even more.

dd_trade_post.jpg

However the Silk Road is much more dangerous to deal with than normal coastal trade posts as it relies on safe passage through land. If a war breaks out and a part of the trade route is caught in the conflict, the trade will be cut from that province and onwards for that branch. The trade will instead go through any other branch and result in them receiving more of the trade than they normally would. The Silk route can be viewed from the Economic mapmode but also in more detail from the Trade zone mapmode.

dd_trade_route.jpg

Next feature is Raiding Adventurers. This system was made to better represent the Normans in Northern France and Sicily in how they settled in foreign land. It is also used for nomads who lose their home. The Germanic raiding adventurers spawn with ships, but even nomads who do not get ships can travel far, as these raiders unlike others can raid in any province (except the provinces of the one who conquered your home lands).

Raiding adventurers will use the money they gain from raiding to recruit more troops, and when they have grown to a certain level, they will try to become landed. A ruler can offer to settle these raiding adventurers, giving them coastal or border provinces. They might however refuse to be settled if they do not like the lands that you are offering. Ambitious raiding adventurers will usually not be settled unless they are given a duchy. If no such offer is made however, they will eventually start a war on one of the rulers they have raided, targeting a duchy.

dd_settle.jpg


The same Settle Adventurer interaction can be used to settle the dynamic mercenaries we already covered, if you have managed to make them your friend. Settled raiding adventurers will become Feudal or Iqta depending on their religion, and also be disinherited from the nomad realm from which they came from.

One of the benefits of settling a raiding adventurer is that the provinces that are given away will be blocked from raided again in the near future.

dd_settled.jpg

Raiding adventurers that do not spawn from being conquered as well as dynamic mercenaries will get the Adventurer trait that makes the character much more ambitious and military capable. So even if they give you several benefits to settle, they can become dangerous for your future generations.

dd_adventurer.jpg


That's all for this week! Next week we are going to go through map and culture revisions and new events!
 
On the Adventurer trait near the bottom, theirs an increase to manpower? I haven't heard anything about manpower, and since ck2 has levies instead of eu 4 mechanics, so does this mean that manpower is related to the maximum size of your mercenary band/dynamic raiders.

Hordes use manpower instead of levies as they don't really use holdings - I think it was discussed in the first Horse Lords centric few diary (4?).
 
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I really hope this means a large buff to Adventures not only in flavor but in power and likely hood to succeed

People say Silk Road is a buff to Abbasids or ERE but they don't consider that both are now going to have a far more serious problem when it comes to Turks and Cuman and the like raiding them and leading adventures against them

Hopefully this will also lead to a much stronger Norse presence in England both in the Charlemagne start where it appears that the viking invasion never happen to england, and will really just make it hard to over come the vikings in Old Gods start england

The vikings are pretty tough to overcome already in 867. Making them even tougher would border on railroading the outcome of the Anglo-Norse showdown in 867
 
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Will there be a bonus for owning most or all of the silk road and having high crown authority? The former represents the idea that after the mongol invasion the silk road bloomed due to it being safer. The latter makes that nation more capable at protecting the road.
 
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Hopefully this will also lead to a much stronger Norse presence in England both in the Charlemagne start where it appears that the viking invasion never happen to england, and will really just make it hard to over come the vikings in Old Gods start england

Really?

The norse seem to over run England pretty consistnently in those two starts as is.

If anything hopefully letting vikings settle will help england survive.
 
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These mechanics could be used for a dynamically spawned Ottoman tribe :eek:

An Ottoman tribe wouldn't make much sense anywhere else than in Central or Western Anatolia though. It took a complex series of events to see them establish themselves as a separate entity. If you just want the dynasty name in an earlier startdate (769, 867 or 1066) why don't you script an Ottoman spawn event yourself?

An Ottoman tribe wouldn't make sense in Anatolia too but Kayı tribe(not as a tribe yet) is already in different places(yes outside of Anatolia too) at different dates.
 
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Also please tell me at least the other pagans will get adventurer mechanic not just Germanics Im sorry but its crazy how germanics keep getting more flavor/attention...
 
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Can we also have the "Fur Road" between Scandinavia and the Samanid and Byzantine Empires as well as the Abbasid Caliphate? The Russian River System would be great for this. Vast amounts of Fur, Slaves and Silver traveled these routes during the Viking Age and it would be great to see that in game right along side the Silk Road.
 
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Will the Norman culture flip be rewritten so that it doesn't require the top liege to be Norse?

Currently only independent realms can produce Normans, but the settling of adventurers doesn't seem to produce independent realms (nor should it).
 
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Man all of these features look amazing, but at the same time I expect everything to be completely broken for at least a month after release.

Just the imagine the release date as a month after the official release date.
 
Can we also have the "Fur Road" between Scandinavia and the Samanid and Byzantine Empires as well as the Abbasid Caliphate? The Russian River System would be great for this. Vast amounts of Fur, Slaves and Silver traveled these routes during the Viking Age and it would be great to see that in game right along side the Silk Road.
Yes, it would be nice.
Also, Trans-Sahara trade route:
ooxmiVE.png
"While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the late 16th century."
Exactly what we need.
 
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Do anyone feels that silk roadcould possibly buff the Karens an other heirs to Zoroastrian Persia? On one of screenies, the raw value of trade post was over 500 gold. More gold means more mercenaries, and more mercenaries means, you know what. Also I feel that silk road passing throught abbasids, together with dynamic mercenaries, may make revolts against Big Green Blob easier.
 
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Do anyone feels that silk roadcould possibly buff the Karens an other heirs to Zoroastrian Persia? On one of screenies, the raw value of trade post was over 500 gold. More gold means more mercenaries, and more mercenaries means, you know what. Also I feel that silk road passing throught abbasids, together with dynamic mercenaries, may make revolts against Big Green Blob easier.

The thing is if things dont change too signifcantly the Abbablob will control a huge chunk of the Silk Road, and since wars stop the silk road and the other sections of the silk road pass through war torn cumania, they will end up reaping a huge dividend from it.
 
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The thing is if things dont change too signifcantly the Abbablob will control a huge chunk of the Silk Road, and since wars stop the silk road and the other sections of the silk road pass through war torn cumania, they will end up reaping a huge dividend from it.

Yes but as I understand the DD, the money from SR TP goes to the owner of the province. Between the ownar and the Caliph are at least two levels (Count->Duke->Caliph) So his share would be something like 1% (I don't remember the value of Iqta tax, it is 10%, right?) of the money from TP. It is worse if Caliph would make any Viceorys, as his share will fall down to 0,1%.
 
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Ok, but pls stop always talk about CHINA it's boring !!!

I will literally post something about China on every dev diary from here on out until the end of times just to annoy the shit out of you.
 
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Yes, it would be nice.
Also, Trans-Sahara trade route:
"While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the late 16th century."
Exactly what we need.
I think it's about time the Western African Kingdoms got some love as well. I would like to see the expansion of many trade routes, not just the silk road.
 
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Yes but as I understand the DD, the money from SR TP goes to the owner of the province. Between the ownar and the Caliph are at least two levels (Count->Duke->Caliph) So his share would be something like 1% (I don't remember the value of Iqta tax, it is 10%, right?) of the money from TP. It is worse if Caliph would make any Viceorys, as his share will fall down to 0,1%.

Its still going to compound the all ready exsistant problem of the Caliph having stupidly strong loyal vassals. Even if he isnt getting a ton of money, hes getting more and his vassals are getting even stronger.
 
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