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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!
 
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My interpretation is that patricians can build a trade post on the coast, county ownership not needed (as previously), and anyone who ones a county on a trade route (patrician or not) can build a trade post in that county. Nothing about patricians being able to build inland trade posts that are either (1) not on the trade route or (2) not in a county owned by that patrician.

I think the changelog tidbits were just for the pre-announcement teaser dev diarie

For their direct vassals, lords have never been able to improve things in their vassals' vassals lands.

I thought in some patch or another they made it so you could build improvements for your vassal's vassals. But again, I never pay attention to my vassals's vassals, so I trust your judgement.

And your interpretation on the silk road think, if true, which I suspect is the more reasonable reading after all, would make inland trade posts into basicly province modifiers with fancy interface graphics, wouldn't it? By the way, I wonder what is a trade zone inlands. As in, is it a "brach" or the route, or the whole thing, or something in between?

And I wonder how does mechanically-wise work the "trade route occupied means trade is diverted" thing. Would it be like a -100 tax penalty to trade posts "downstram? But how are the other branches receiving more income modeled?

Man I lately find this diaries sooo lacking in detail....
 
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If the inland trade is moddable it would become one of the best expansions for CK2. We now need some form of naval combat, and a lot of optimization to get this game running smoothly, and i would be satisfied. China would be nice, but it's a entire world, too big, too populous, and i don't see much of the appeal, aside from something like that Three Kingdoms period mod.
 
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In the post it does say that settling raiders will stop an area from being raided for a period of time, however I assume that unless other things change its just a very temporary relief and the endless viking raids will return.

Part of the current problem is that Germanics stay germanics from the oldest start date untill the end of the game, Id like to hear if there are any changes in mind for proselytization, reformed religion tribal behavior, and tribal ->feudalism transition.

Plus Im still not sure what exactly controls blocking river routes from raiders I know its a certain level of tech but its incredibly nebulous, hoping that they add a tool tip to show this.

I really hope that the Silk road is not another buff for the Abbasids... If it is, I hope its countered by some other measure...

Im hyped enough for horse lords, I want to know if things are being changed balance wise especially to the earlier start dates.

Id like to play a non-Latin Empire start date :(
 
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Depending on how hordes work, it could either weak or buff the Abassids. If hordes are stronger now it'll likely be the former. And the steppes will be at war most of the time anyways so it'll be disrupted at least half the time.
 
For their direct vassals, lords have never been able to improve things in their vassals' vassals lands.

Uh, sure you can. :) They changed it so that you could improve anything in your realm, including vassals of vassals.

(runs off to check just to make sure)
 
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So does this mean if I lose my last county as a Germanic then I can become an adventurer?

Does this also mean adventurers are playable now?

What about non-Germanic and non-nomad adventurers?
 
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So does this mean if I lose my last county as a Germanic then I can become an adventurer?

Does this also mean adventurers are playable now?

What about non-Germanic and non-nomad adventurers?
Yes, but even further, where *are* adventurers and landless nomads? Can one interact/plot against them from every corner on the globe? Where do they spawn their troops?
 
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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.
 
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You forgot the caveat he added to that statement buddy. He would like to add China, If they can overcome the technical limitations of the current game engine so that adding China wouldn't slow the game down significantly

Yup, I wouldn't be surprised if China doesn't make it onto CK2, but there's always CK3 half a decade down the road. I might even still be alive by then.
 
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1.playable adventurers would be awesome, especially for nomadic players. I'd love to take my Turkic tribe and settle in Anatolia or something along those lines.

2. Ghulams - I hope they'd introduce an event that relates to Muslims taking pagan kids and training them to be ghulams, who might later rebel and take over state entities. This was a thing for a while, in India, Iran(Ghaznevids, Anushtiginids) and Egypt(Mamluks).....it'd be a very nice touch to have it.For their impact on history was quiet big.

3- Sufi order events maybe? For they were crucial for nomads in conversion. There were a lot of "heresies" among nomadic originating converts.

4.I understand that economy of middle ages was more stagnant,subsistance oriented, and trade was not a big thing compared to EUIV. But it feels weird to have a trade that is "+2 gold" when you build something. It should be somewhat more fluid like in EUIV.
 
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You forgot the caveat he added to that statement buddy. He would like to add China, If they can overcome the technical limitations of the current game engine so that adding China wouldn't slow the game down significantly
Well considering that the next patch will allegedly make the game run faster than it did at release, this isn't out of the realm of possibility.
 
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This is all very cool and all... I will be getting it for sure... BUT, is there any chance of ever having culture specific city graphics and better map graphics?

I would so pay for a "graphics upgrade" pack.

Something like these 2 mods:
Map: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...d-nbrt-a-complete-map-upgrade-package.748086/
Cities: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...paign-map-culturally-different-cities.592170/


I wish i could agree your post 50x. This would immensely increase flavor
 
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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
 
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