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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!
 
Honestly, with these mechanics, I see almost no reason why they wouldn't be able to do a Dark Ages expansion covering the barbarian breakup of the Roman Empire.
Yeah. Their only stated reason why not to is "the rise of Islam is too hard to do." If they made a Fall of Rome DLC then all of the medieval era would be finally represented!! It could come with an overhaul of the technology system :)


EDIT: Thinking about this a little more, it'd be cool if they made 3 more DLCs with new start dates. Each one in a different century. 6th century for fall of Rome (even though Rome was de-facto defeated by this point.) 7th century for rise of Islam. 10th century for return of the HRE (maybe goverment focused DLC?)
 
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This sounds really intriguing. Also, gems for emperors are cute.
How much would this DLC cost?

An even better question is, when will it be out? I cannot wait!
 
I am, like many other people I think, perfectly fine with China in CK2 but I've two conditions:
- India is already poorly done, with badly modeled governement forms, religions and even borders (not that they don't have the correct borders - but many lands were just not feudal, and some of the "counties" in CK2 India had simply no rulers, and some didn't even have people ! They were jungles !). And many people asking for China probably don't even play in India... So if we are to get China, we need proper mechanisms for laws, governments and religions. And even combat. And a full set of new events (again, the indian-specific events are ridiculously few).
For me it's more so the latter than the former. I'm okay with them adding China so long as they don't add another half-!#ed goverment when there's cultures and governments already in the game that are being neglected. They've already overhauled tribes and nomads. Now all that really remains is an update to Muslims and India and maybe another look at religions.
 
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Yeah. Their only stated reason why not to is "the rise of Islam is too hard to do." If they made a Fall of Rome DLC then all of the medieval era would be finally represented!! It could come with an overhaul of the technology system :)


EDIT: Thinking about this a little more, it'd be cool if they made 3 more DLCs with new start dates. Each one in a different century. 6th century for fall of Rome (even though Rome was de-facto defeated by this point.) 7th century for rise of Islam. 10th century for return of the HRE (maybe goverment focused DLC?)

Please no... this was a completelly different era... CK2 don't need to cover over 1000 years...
 
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The decision to form Hungary will be replaced with a more generic "Adopt Feudalism" decision, which will give up all steppe lands (provinces without settlements) to settle down in a conquered castle, along with culture conversion in some provinces and the stuff that is already in the form Hungary decision. They do not start as raiding adventurers however.

What about the Charlemagne start? Will there be any changes to encourage the Magyar nomads to settle in the Carpathian basin?
 
and some didn't even have people ! They were jungles !)

Actually, this is not true. The entire subcontinent had been occupied and populated by the game's start date (769). It was only during the Mauryan Empire era and before, that there were sparsely populated area (like the areas east of Bengal for example). But by the Gupta Empire era the population had increased dramatically and even the most remote jungles and mountains were inhabited, sometimes by isolated autonomous tribes who paid tribute (in money, crafts and soldiers) to the emperors to be left alone.

Sure, there were still some heavily forested or mountainous areas that were populated very, very sparsely, but they weren't 'empty'.
 
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I'm guessing next week will be the last Developer diary, with a release in 2 weeks?

I'd still really love a revision of the Tengri holy sites, since Tengri reforms far too often the earlier you start - especially in the first 2 start dates.
 
I'm guessing next week will be the last Developer diary, with a release in 2 weeks?

I'd still really love a revision of the Tengri holy sites, since Tengri reforms far too often the earlier you start - especially in the first 2 start dates.

Your guess would be incorrect:
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!
 
Really interested in the Silk Road mechanics, especially in how they can be expanded for a potential African expansion.

Culture revisions? Awesome. (Hoping to see some more titles to replace the Baron-Count-and-Duke titles in different cultures.) Really look forward to seeing these, even if they're mostly easily moddable tweaks, there's a sense of officiation to them.
 
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The decision to form Hungary will be replaced with a more generic "Adopt Feudalism" decision, which will give up all steppe lands (provinces without settlements) to settle down in a conquered castle, along with culture conversion in some provinces and the stuff that is already in the form Hungary decision. They do not start as raiding adventurers however.
Does this mean that Hungry will no longer get event troops after settling?
 
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Do you lose nomadic vassals on feudalising?

Yes. One of the clans will become the new liege of the nomadic realm, become independent from you and take over your empty provinces.

Will a settled horde retain it's empire-level?

No.. Not the same title at least. They will get a duchy/kingdom/empire title that is the de-jure liege of the province they choose to settle in (the tier will be one above the highest tier non-clan vassal you have in the realm). If that title already exists, a custom title is created instead.

What about the Charlemagne start? Will there be any changes to encourage the Magyar nomads to settle in the Carpathian basin?

Not really. They are a special case since we give them the Kingdom of Hungary when settling in its de-jure territory even though they in some cases should only gain a duchy, but we have not railroaded where they will try to settle.

Does this mean that Hungry will no longer get event troops after settling?

They will. In fact all nomads that settle will get event troops depending on how many empty holdings they abandon in this process.
 
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Not really. They are a special case since we give them the Kingdom of Hungary when settling in its de-jure territory even though they in some cases should only gain a duchy, but we have not railroaded where they will try to settle.
YES
TIME FOR HUNGARY IN FINLAND

Also, do all of the provinces in which you settle take on your culture?
 
YES
TIME FOR HUNGARY IN FINLAND

Also, do all of the provinces in which you settle take on your culture?

Sorry I was a bit unclear about that. They will get the Kingdom of Hungary if settled in the Carpathian basin only. What I meant was that even if a nomad should in some cases get a duchy when becoming feudal, they will always get the kingdom if it is in the Carpathian basin.

Not all provinces change culture. But some do. The capital will change culture, and a number of provinces depending on your civilian population will as well.
 
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Sorry I was a bit unclear about that. They will get the Kingdom of Hungary if settled in the Carpathian basin only. What I meant was that even if a nomad should in some cases get a duchy when becoming feudal, they will always get the kingdom if it is in the Carpathian basin.

Not all provinces change culture. But some do. The capital will change culture, and a number of provinces depending on your civilian population will as well.
That's pretty logical, I'd say. No sense in everything becoming of the conqueror's culture (especially since it didn't historically - Slovakia, for example).
 
Thanks to @Karolus Magnus for answering the questions so far. Another one I have:

Groogy has said that adventurers won't be playable in vanilla, but is this moddable? As of now, you can mod your way into playing landless characters, although it's buggy (if the title you use has a capital defined in landed_titles, that will count as your capital, otherwise, ANY/ALL (i.e. nowhere) will count as capital. I assume from your earlier comments that this is totally gone and that any character who own no province will be using its current location for troop-spawning, diplo-range, etc. Is this right? Or is it dependent on some property of the titles the adventurers use? I.e. is it having the location=capital when landless tied with unplayability? It is specially crucial for me since I've been working in a landless mod for a while now