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Hey folks, it is dev diary day and time to talk a bit about rebels and adventurers! Let's start off with the rebels; as you know, the old rebels are a nuisance but they are easily defeated and even if they hold a county for a long time, defection is rare. Sure, they sometimes kill a local ruler, but even that is uncommon. This is a shame, especially since we have explored better ways of handling rebels in the In Nomine expansion to Europa Universalis III and in Victoria II. So, for The Old Gods, we are replacing the old simplistic system with proper rebels with a cause (if you don't have the expansion, you will be stuck with the old system.) There are three new types of rebels: peasants, heretics and "liberators". As before, they can appear if the revolt risk is higher than 0 in a county. If the county is of a heretic religion, heretic rebels may appear. If the county is in a kingdom occupied by foreigners, liberators may rise up. If the other two types are not suitable, it's going to be a peasant revolt.

CKII_ToG_DD_06_Peasant_Revolt.jpg

The new types of rebels all have a leader with a temporary title. They start at war with the ruler of the realm in which they appear, but they are hostile to everyone. Fighting them is like fighting a normal war; you get war score for crushing their army. If peasant or heretic rebels win, the county will be taken and becomes independent under their leader. Liberators are more dangerous; they tend to rise up with the best and largest forces, and they are after the entire de jure kingdom. However, they typically tend to settle for a few counties and the title to the kingdom itself. The system is fully moddable and it is pretty straightforward to add new rebel types.

CKII_ToG_DD_06_Claimant_Adventure.jpg

This brings us to adventurers. The concept is quite similar to the rebels, but adventures are started by existing characters and can target distant lands. There are two main types; claimants with no titles who stand to inherit nothing, and men of major dynasties with no claims but high martial and diplomatic skill. In both cases, the adventurer lets it be known that he is starting an adventure and gathering a host (both his current liege(s) and the target ruler are notified). After a year or two, he is given a temporary duchy title, an army, and a fleet. War is declared, and he goes after the target. Claimants, of course, will try to press their claim, but the other type simply target a juicy duchy somewhere and go off to seize it (like the d'Hautevilles took southern Italy). A savvy player who is targetted may of course assassinate the adventurer before he arrives with his army... Characters of certain cultures are more likely to go off on claimless adventures, e.g. Normans and Norse.

CKII_ToG_DD_06_Conquest_Adventure.jpg

Speaking of Norse and Norman, another thing I believe we haven't mentioned yet are the new cultures we've added: Norse, Bolghar, Khazar, Mordvin, Samoyed and Avar. In 867, all Scandinavians are of the Norse culture, but there are events that will initiate a split into Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. Independent Norse rulers outside Scandinavia will not be affected. Determined players can also choose to stay Norse and attempt to educate children of vassals to stick to this culture. Similarly, there are events for the appearance of Norman culture, which is formed by Norse conquerors in Frankish, Breton or Occitan lands. (Yes, we could have done this for any number of cultures in the game, but it is quite a lot of work. It is, of course, also fully moddable.)

CKII_ToG_DD_06_Cultural_Divergence.jpg

That sums it up for today! Next Wednesday will see the last dev diary for The Old Gods expansion and will feature the new technology system and what other tidbits remain.

Bonus, in case you missed it ;)

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods Video Dev Diary 2 - Rebels
[video=youtube;eo7ttCKInYM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo7ttCKInYM[/video]

 
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I know you said that the rebels will be hostile towards everyone. I was wondering if we will be able to request to join their war? Is a rebellion considered an actual war? Since the rebellions are now led by a character it would make sense to be able to make that request. The same question would go for the landless adventurers as well.

I just think it would be great to assist the enemy of my enemy to further my agenda. I don't see why a rebel army would turn down any outside assistance. :happy:

Old Gods looks awesome and I can't wait!
 
the new rebel system is excellent to look forward to. Is there a chance that vassals of the same culture during a liberator rebellion will rise up with the liberators? ( Sorry if this has already been asked!)
 
I really don't think that it what he was complaining about.

Well i wrote "Norræn siður mun aldrei deyja, aldrei!" But since correct spelling is a rather new phenomenon, writing it "Noræn sið m egi dey eki" could be considered equally legit.
 
This expansion is shaping up to be pretty awesome.

I think this is one I won't wait until it goes on sale to buy. :)
 
Will the size of liberator armies be proportional to the size of the kingdom they are invading (i.e., will Andalusian rebel stacks be bigger than, say, Serbian stacks of liberator armies)?
 
Pretty sure it's already been confirmed they won't. They are landless after all.

It has been confirmed they are not playable, but there's absolutely no reason you couldn't console switch to them.

The engine certainly allows landless players. In fact, you can (or could until recently, perhaps?) play as any landless vassal you wanted with no problem, like the Varangian Guards or the Mamlukes.

There are a few minor bugs, like not having a location ("In an unknown location") - but this is a problem for patricians, too. For example, try being a Muslim patrician. If you don't have real holdings or a council job, and you go off on hajj, you'll never return - because you have nowhere to return to.

Anyway, long story short, there is no reason adventurers shouldn't be playable, but Paradox has just decided they shouldn't.
 
Engine supports landless characters, there is a workaround to allow that, GOT-mod style.
 
Sounds like you're accusing PDS of discrimination, while you are basically doing the same thing...

What about Finnish, Baltic or even West African paganism, or tengri, heck, even Greek paganism? Are you even concerned about them, because all you do is ranting on and on about Slavs? All I'm saying is that every pagan religion should be given the same amount of thought as others. Rest is up for modding :)

Ha! What about Judaism? W're literally playing a history of Europe and the Mideast where Judaism doesn't exist, despite the fact that the Khazars were Jews and plenty of in-game courtiers are Jewish in real life.
 
Ha! What about Judaism? W're literally playing a history of Europe and the Mideast where Judaism doesn't exist, despite the fact that the Khazars were Jews and plenty of in-game courtiers are Jewish in real life.

The Khazar Khagans were Jews. Maybe a load of their population too, but that still is only one or two counties. Furthermore, there's absolutely no need for Jewish courtiers, since everything that they could do can be accomplished with realm events. The Kingdom of Semien is, AFAIK, outside the map. If it were in but Paradox made the Beta-Israel Gentile, then I'd agree that PDS were discriminating.
 
Also, I wonder, what about theocracies? Will we not be able to play the Templar Knights? Or play as the pope or as the Teutonic Order? It would seem rather unwise to make a theocracy DLC in another opportunity since there aren't too many optional theocratic governments in the game but still..
 
Also, I wonder, what about theocracies? Will we not be able to play the Templar Knights? Or play as the pope or as the Teutonic Order? It would seem rather unwise to make a theocracy DLC in another opportunity since there aren't too many optional theocratic governments in the game but still..

This DLC won't make theocracies or holy orders playable.
 
The Khazar Khagans were Jews. Maybe a load of their population too, but that still is only one or two counties. Furthermore, there's absolutely no need for Jewish courtiers, since everything that they could do can be accomplished with realm events. The Kingdom of Semien is, AFAIK, outside the map. If it were in but Paradox made the Beta-Israel Gentile, then I'd agree that PDS were discriminating.
The kingdom of Semien is not outside the game map.. If you look in here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semien_Mountains, it is clearly stated that the Semien mountains are found north east of gondar, which is included in the game as the 'Duchy of Gondar', therefore, the Semien Kingdom is supposed to be included in the game, as well as Judaism..
 
Awesome (btw any difference between a normal Republic and a "Peasant Republic", just wondering).
 
So, is it confirmed that the rebellion mechanic will be for TOG-owners only, like was said in the video dev diary?
I certainly hope not, as it sounds like a major balancing mechanic, and one that will cause significant differences between campaigns with and without it.
And hey, surely pagans and the 867 start should be plenty to sell the DLC?