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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

That's all for this week! Next week we are going to go through map and culture revisions and new events!

 

[Groogy]

This looks great but is there no interaction at all with Merchant Republics? Like no special value to a MR trade zone that connects to the Silk Road?

Yes there is but it's already granted by mechanics that are already in the game which is why we decided to make trade routes rely on the same trade zone system as merchsn republics use

 

[Groogy]

Will it be possible to "divert" the Silk Road?
If you have a province adjacent to it, you could spend a hefty bit of gold to have a branch flow to you as well.

You can't divert it to new provinces no but you can divert the amount of trade.

 

[Will Steel]

If there are no plans to add the historical Gangetic-Plain route into the game (which is very unfortunate...but still), is it going to be moddable?

I want to add this historical route from the Mauryan Empire era, it was still existing even after the game as I had said:

 

[Steel_atlas]

It probably won't mainly because there is no King of England at these starts, and they said most adventurers won't settle for anything short of a duchy, so Scotland will be ok, but Ireland and England might still have some trouble

This new system will likely change the dynamic a bit, I think Norse invasions will be a bit stronger, but British rulers might have some more reasonable outs as well, hopefully pacifying viking to a degree by incorporating them into the realm, although you might have to deal with wrong culture wrong religion vassals for a while instead

I think as long as raiding adventurers dont get spammed to much it could work out well, in my experience (ancedotal evidence away!) vassal with wrong culture lieges/counties do convert culture, and the newly landed vassals should convert religion right away since they will be friendly to you.

I think will cause problems for France and scotland the most because of the Norman/scottish melting pot, I think the culture malus should be removed for Normans->French but thats an educated guess someone with more intimate knowledge would have to confirm.

Hopefully prepared invasions will become much rarer though as the new mechanic mirrors the norse adventurers better, still want that 867 events though!

 

[BFKelleher]

Groogy, I tried asking this question last week but it seems to have gotten buried. What exactly are the conditions for one ruler to be a tributary to another?

Do they have to be independent or can vassals make each other tributaries (for example, the duke of Normandy making the duke of Flanders a tributary when they are both vassals of the king of Egypt)?

Does the rank of the possible tributary in comparison to the rank of the overlord matter (for example, could I make Byzantium a tributary as the count of Desmond by using cheats to imprison getting really lucky with alliances or in battle and imprisoning the Basileus)?

What exactly are the conditions to gain the tributary CB?

 

[Steel_atlas]

Yes there is but it's already granted by mechanics that are already in the game which is why we decided to make trade routes rely on the same trade zone system as merchsn republics use

So if venice controls the trade zones next to the silk road ports they will get the bonus gold modifier from being part of the silk road?

Can merchant republics seize silk road tradeposts?

 

[Groogy]

I would very much like to see players being able to become raiding adventurers.

I want it to be possible and we've talked a big deal about the whole "carve your own realm" mentality that everyone has. But it is a lot of technical stuff that has to be solved first. If you look at CK2 it's the most dynamic game we have and it is straining the core of the game.

 

[riadach]

What happens in seazones that are part of a silk route?

 

[Steel_atlas]

What happens in seazones that are part of a silk route?

Im curious aswell, do they become "part of the silk route" this would really help merchant republics strength.

 

[Groogy]

Are the locations of the Silk Road moddable? Just wondering if full conversion mods could make use of it.

Of course, you can even make as many routes as you want and apply whatever modifier you want individually.

 

[Groogy]

Groogy, I tried asking this question last week but it seems to have gotten buried. What exactly are the conditions for one other

Lose a war where tributary status is the end effect.

 

[TheAnguishedOne]

Of course, you can even make as many routes as you want and apply whatever modifier you want individually.

Bless you. This is great news for a lot of mods.

 

[theKing1988]

Does it affect anything downstream if you develop the Silk Road or are all the modifiers localised to the individual provinces along the road?

 

[TheDungen]

I want it to be possible and we've talked a big deal about the whole "carve your own realm" mentality that everyone has. But it is a lot of technical stuff that has to be solved first. If you look at CK2 it's the most dynamic game we have and it is straining the core of the game.

True but this dynamism is what makes the game so diffrent from any other game. And granted we're spoiled crazy but i think the whole 'you can play anyone' mentality is a paradigm changer for 4x games.

 

[Groogy]

Do they even mention if upgrading the Silk Road will carry value further downstream, like the trade notes do in EU4. Otherwise i can't see how it's introduction is a buff to any of the powers in the Middle East or Europe. Then it's just gonna be a buff to the local powers in Central Asia

Yes we do I think either way yes you can improve the route directly

 

[theKing1988]

Yes we do I think either way yes you can improve the route directly

I got that already, i saw the new little icons for the Silk Road trade posts in the OP. What i meant was. Does it carry value further down the road if you develop it (build trade posts) or is the modifiers only localised to the individual provinces that make up the road.

 

[Steel_atlas]

I got that already, i saw the new little icons for the Silk Road trade posts in the OP. What i meant was. Does it carry value further down the road if you develop it or is it localised to the individual provinces that make up the road.

I think it is and should be a static value, feudal realms /merchant republics will benefit more because city multipliers but it doesnt make sense to have it carry downstream, its a trade route so its a stream of trade and the tax values on that trade so it would be constant.

In effect the western/middle eastern states will gain more benefit due to having cities but have the trade off it being easier to lose access to it.

 

[riadach]

What do the different colours on the trade route represent?

 

[Galle]

Of course, you can even make as many routes as you want and apply whatever modifier you want individually.

Does this mean that we can have multiple unrelated trade routes in the game at once? I.e. could modders use the Sill Road mechanics to add a new trade route in West Africa while keeping the Silk Road around as well?

Additionally, is it possible to change the rules for who can build trade posts in Silk Road provinces? It'd be nice if we could limit them to patricians like the coastal trade posts are, or if we could make them available to the local ruler and patricians.

 

[Mr_Hobo]

I want it to be possible and we've talked a big deal about the whole "carve your own realm" mentality that everyone has. But it is a lot of technical stuff that has to be solved first. If you look at CK2 it's the most dynamic game we have and it is straining the core of the game.

Can you make it so a landed player loses his other land when he accepts the vassalage option for a raider? I don't like that to be a Viking conqueror I have to keep my Scandinavian land...

Also, some new blob-breaking mechanics would be helpful. More aggressive, diverse factions would help a lot.