• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
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!
 
Well, I'm not that hyped (but just for the possibility to deal more freely with holdings and the new tribal system), but I liked it nonetheless. And I also hope other Pagans are also able to get the Adventure mechanics. Finns, Slavs and Balts seem to get no flavour at all (can't sail through rivers, although Novgorod, for example, was a city is along a river with boats coming and going all the time even before Rurik; too few options and events, etc), despite the fact that it is known (I hope) that there were Slavs, Balts and Finns among Vikings and raiders, as well as that they traded constantly.

Oh, also: Why the provinces in which Adventures settle can't be raided when they are, at first, strong to deal with any raid? I don't see the point in having that modifier for 20 years.
Anyway, keep it going! :)
 
Last edited:
  • 4
Reactions:
Well, I'm not that hyped (but just for the possibility to deal more freely with holdings and the new tribal system), but I liked it nonetheless. And I also hope other Pagans are also able to get the Adventure mechanics. Finns, Slavs and Balts seem to get no flavour at all (can't sail through rivers, although Novgorod, for example, was a city is along a river with boats coming and going all the time even before Rurik; too few options and events, etc), despite the fact that it is known (I hope) that there were Slavs, Balts and Finns among Vikings and raiders, as well as that they traded constantly.

Oh, also: Why the provinces in which Adventures settle can't be raided when they are, at first, strong to deal with any raid? I don't see the point in having that modifier for 20 years.
Anyway, keep it going! :)

it does stop river travel, my only problem is that 20 years in not that long in game and its a very short term band aid to a problem that exsists for the duration of the game. Vikings never stop raiding in the CM and TOG starts unless you conquer every county germanics own.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
So a Silk Road mechanic that will likely only further empower the blobs in the East (Arabian and Byz Empires, etc) and a settle mechanic that looks good on paper but surprise, surprise still favors the Germanics over the other neglected pagans.

Eh, hopefully we see better details next week. I mean I was already sold on the Mongol/Nomad stuff.
 
  • 6
  • 2
Reactions:
So a Silk Road mechanic that will likely only further empower the blobs in the East (Arabian and Byz Empires, etc) and a settle mechanic that looks good on paper but surprise, surprise still favors the Germanics over the other neglected pagans.

Eh, hopefully we see better details next week. I mean I was already sold on the Mongol/Nomad stuff.

I haven't seen anything yet in the screenies to suggest that it should empower other realms than the ones who own the provinces that the Silk Road runs through. It doesn't seem like it involves anything else than trade posts that gives province modifiers. You can then cut of the modifiers downstream during war. It is basically just the current very poor and very abstracted trade system adapted to an inland route
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Settled raiding adventurers will become Feudal or Iqta depending on their religion

Would'nt it have made sense for nomads to become tribal first once settled before becoming feudal or Iqta? that goes same for Viking adventurers as well.

But nevertheless, a good addition since it is now becoming more historically realistic now.
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
Would'nt it have made sense for nomads to become tribal first once settled before becoming feudal or Iqta? that goes same for Viking adventurers as well.

But nevertheless, a good addition since it is now becoming more historically realistic now.
They probably go tribal if the province is tribal.
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Vikings never stop raiding in the CM and TOG starts unless you conquer every county germanics own.

Well, I'd say that models the Vikings pretty well, wouldn't you? If they hadn't been brought into the fold of White Christ, we might actually have seen the Fylkir's raiders tearing up the continent up through the Renaissance ... (Until they formed a Zoroastrian Republican Empire with the capital in Canarias, of course)

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.

Why is everyone saying Byzzies will be stronger? The Silk Road doesn't even reach them. It's an Abbasid buff.

It seems to me like the an important issue for anyone on the eastern half of the map will be to keep wars going in strategic locations on the Silk Road. The real trick will be to control the upstream locations yourself, and somehow keep warring realms cutting off all the downstream branches ... maybe keep budding off single-county states all the time that get attacked by others?
I'm totally digging the idea of being a steppe nomad holding the Tarim Basin, tugging the silk strings and watching the city-dwellers dance for me!
 
  • 6
Reactions:
Odd, no dev replies in the whole thread, usually we get one or two replies to the leading questions by some dev.
 
Well, I'd say that models the Vikings pretty well, wouldn't you? If they hadn't been brought into the fold of White Christ, we might actually have seen the Fylkir's raiders tearing up the continent up through the Renaissance ... (Until they formed a Zoroastrian Republican Empire with the capital in Canarias, of course)
It seems to me like the an important issue for anyone on the eastern half of the map will be to keep wars going in strategic locations on the Silk Road. The real trick will be to control the upstream locations yourself, and somehow keep warring realms cutting off all the downstream branches ... maybe keep budding off single-county states all the time that get attacked by others?
I'm totally digging the idea of being a steppe nomad holding the Tarim Basin, tugging the silk strings and watching the city-dwellers dance for me!

1. I hope control of the Silk Road is as strategic as what your saying, but part of me feels that in reality the Abablob will just dominate it.

2. Not to get too OT, and Im certainly no expert but from what I have read from others more in the know then me, the christianization of pagans was an inevitable process that the game does not model correctly. The idea of a pagan reformation, while not impossible, is pretty implausible after all the Mongols controlled all of the holy sites in game and did not reform in real life. Reformations of the pagans seems to be a mechanic meant to allow players to stay pagan, which I like.

I think the biggest problem atm is that christianized pagans convert directly to feudalism and get overwhelmed by their pagan neighbors or religious revolts. Add in that the AI doesnt tech to Military Organization 4 like a player so they cant fight offensively against pagans (though hopefully forts help with this but that seems like it might be too much for the AI) plus the fact that due to pagan religious bonuses their armiers are better then christian armies stacks the odds ahistorically in their favor.
 
  • 6
  • 1
Reactions:
Well, I'd say that models the Vikings pretty well, wouldn't you? If they hadn't been brought into the fold of White Christ, we might actually have seen the Fylkir's raiders tearing up the continent up through the Renaissance ... (Until they formed a Zoroastrian Republican Empire with the capital in Canarias, of course).

The problem is that happens in every game that starts before 1066. The Norse convert far too slowly, if ever, and remain a nuisance unless the player converts them. And if you want to do that before the 13th century you will probably have to conquer northern Europe yourself.

Of course the biggest issue is that raids always target major holdings, like every expedition was the Great Heathen Army. Usually it was just a few dozen raiders who hit isolated monasteries and villages. And that exterminating an entire warband has no long term impact, a chief should be broken if he botches such a raid but he will be back in two years. And other chiefs will not factor in the fact that the last 1500 guys who attacked you ended up dead and will come over regardless.
 
  • 6
Reactions: