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CK2 Dev Diary #17: Crusader Cats

Hello everyone! I’m Virvatuli, one of the Content Designers on The Reaper’s Due, which also happens to be my very first project here at Paradox. It’s been so much fun working on this DLC and I hope you’ll have even more fun playing it! In this week’s DD (another first for me), I will reveal one of Reaper’s most important features. Oh, okay, it might not be that important, but at least it’s my personal favourite and pet project. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you cats.

For the longest time, there’s been a issue regarding the representation of pets in Crusader Kings 2. In the realm of companion animals, there has been a worrisome lack of diversity. Most of you who play Way of Life have probably had a loyal hunting dog, there have been some events regarding birds of prey, and a lucky few Conclave players might have encountered a tiny rodent friend. Sadly, that has been pretty much it on the pet front. To rectify this serious problem we’ve added some additional furry and feathered friends in The Reaper’s Due. As we did, of course we couldn’t leave out the best animal of them all: our Feline Overlords, Befurred Ninjas, Gods of the Internet.

In the new DLC you can befriend a cat in a number of ways. However, as any Dwarf Fortress player or real-life cat lover knows, you do not adopt a cat. A cat adopts you. Once your feline friend has decided that you’re the one and only slave for it, you will receive a fancy “Pet Cat” character modifier (unless you scare it away, you horrible person). It will give your character +1 health, as the cat brings you so much happiness, and +1 intrigue, because we all know that cat owners are a bit more clever than everyone else (hey, it’s science!).

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However, most things can become troublesome in excess, even your love for felines. In every cat owner’s life there comes a time when you ask yourself if you shouldn’t get just one more. At some point, the answer is probably no, at least if you don’t want to scare off all of your friends and repulse the courtiers.

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Unless you want to become even sneakier, that is. Then go ahead and become a Crazy Cat Lady, or a Crazy Cat Lord, if that’s how you identify.

At first thought, one might think that cats would be a very insignificant aspect of a medieval ruler’s life, however, when the Plague comes around to visit this changes drastically. Most of you probably know that the Black Death was likely spread by fleas on rats. Sadly this fact is unknown to ye olde peasant, and when people start to die, some of them might point fingers to our furry protectors. Believe it or not, there are some people who do not like cats. It’s crazy, I know, but trust me on this. How will you deal with their growing fears? Do remember, if you don’t have cats, you’ll have plenty of rats…

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This sneak peak of cats is all you’ll get for now. Don’t worry though, The Reaper’s Due is out on the 25th of August and then you can experience cats for yourself in all their whiskered glory. Next week Darkrenown will talk about more assorted features. Now I need to get back to scripting, there’re still some cat-related subjects which need further exploration… Adieu!
 
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I hope people like me who (due to a RL allergy to cats) absolutely hate those little buggers, get options to kill them all.

Flanders is still under the unjust yoke of the Kaiser. I'll change it when that changes on the 25th.

Which is still a stupid change. Flanders should not belong de-jure to the Kingdom of France and Frisia should have just been taken out of de-jure HRE instead.

So for the Flemish it changes from the "unjust yoke of the Kaiser" to the "unjust yoke of the French King".
 
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cats? in CK2? hah! i laugh at your feeble attempt to throw a ball of yarn past m-KILLITMUSTGETYARNMUSTGETITSOTANTALIZING!

(20 minutes later)

*ahem*, so do cats affect moral authority... because... ya know...

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teh shuld

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EDIT: also nice DD @Virvatuli!
 
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Cats weren't indoor pets the same way in the middle ages though.
I don't think they were really pets at all in the same way during the middle ages. Keeping an animal just for the companionship is expensive, so most 'pets' would have to pay their way. Dogs obviously did that, but cats would probably just be running loose to hopefully catch mice. I really have no idea whether or not the nobility kept them as pets, but in the countryside you had cats that were bred and kept specifically for hunting rats and mice.

Modern cats aren't all indoor pets today though. In the USA that tends to be the case but in the UK they all run free outside.
 
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Clearly I should...
They never seemed that good quality....especially with the 4th installment (third wasnt bad for mods). It's sad when my 2d portrait of stats and words is more emotionally connectable than the 3d figure i create in Sims.

Torture will make it even more fun. I should play as a literral Bond villain, owning a cat and torturing spymasters.
 
So for the Flemish it changes from the "unjust yoke of the Kaiser" to the "unjust yoke of the French King".
Links to images:

France in about 908: https://traveltoeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/wpid-Photo-Sep-13-2013-832-PM.jpg

France in 1030: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...1030-fr.svg/2000px-Map_France_1030-fr.svg.png

France in 1154: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/France_1154_Eng.jpg

France in 1477: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Map_France_1477-en.svg

Yes, they are just maps from random internet sources, but they are pretty accurate and still illustrate my point that it's much better now.
 
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I don't think they were really pets at all in the same way during the middle ages. Keeping an animal just for the companionship is expensive, so most 'pets' would have to pay their way. Dogs obviously did that, but cats would probably just be running loose to hopefully catch mice. I really have no idea whether or not the nobility kept them as pets, but in the countryside you had cats that were bred and kept specifically for hunting rats and mice.

Modern cats aren't all indoor pets today though. In the USA that tends to be the case but in the UK they all run free outside.
Dogs were also animals to be used, sure a nobleman may have his own hunting dog but it wasn't a pet the same way as we have them today. And cats as pets did exist for an example Muhammad had a pet cat. But a pet cat is not a ratcatcher.
And note that when I say indoor cats I'm talking about not cats that are constantly kept indoor but cats that are allowed inside at all.


Clearly I should...
Well there are mods for most stuff.

They never seemed that good quality....especially with the 4th installment (third wasnt bad for mods). It's sad when my 2d portrait of stats and words is more emotionally connectable than the 3d figure i create in Sims.

Torture will make it even more fun. I should play as a literral Bond villain, owning a cat and torturing spymasters.
I actually was going to say that the third game wasn't great for mods but the second was. I haven't even played the fourth one. But since EA are actively trying to stomp out mods doing certain controversial things I am hardly surprised.


I hope people like me who (due to a RL allergy to cats) absolutely hate those little buggers, get options to kill them all.



Which is still a stupid change. Flanders should not belong de-jure to the Kingdom of France and Frisia should have just been taken out of de-jure HRE instead.

So for the Flemish it changes from the "unjust yoke of the Kaiser" to the "unjust yoke of the French King".
You do realise flanders had never belonged to Frisia, in fact even speaking of dutch culture is pretty much an anachronism in ck2. They could easily be frankish (old_frankish) or german.
 
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I'm afraid I agree. The new paradox team have completely broken down in customer (or friend-like) communication. These type of sarcastical answers to real questions have become more frequent recently, and I'm not sure if it's all of paradox or just some people, but it's not funny or respectful.

The guy asked if cats existed in Medieval Europe... I bet Darkrenown thought the guys was trolling or joking. So Darkrenown joked as well.

It's like of someone asks "Why there are horses in this games? Did horses even existed in medieval europe?" There's only 0,0000001% that is not a joke. And after the guy cried, they did actually responded him...
 
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Is this a joke?
Were there even cats in Europe during the Middle ages?

Yeah we've been breeding cats in a sense for a few hundred years but we have domesticated cats since like the iron ages. There used to be lions and other large cat breeds in Europe but they were all killed or domesticated.
 
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I think your way of communicating is a bit offensive!
I know you try to be funny, but I actually feel you are giving me "the finger" here - I as a customer ask a question - I have the idea that cats were pet animals in Egypt, but was first really introduced to Europe as a pet in the 15-1600 perhaps - so it is a legit question, and you as a person from Paradox act like this?
I don't get it... It feels like you think you are superior when writing like that.

And sorry, it is not because I sit curled in the corner right now crying - and I can get through it, don't worry - I just want to tell you that the way you communicate is not very "customer-friendly" in my eyes.

Are... are you a real person? Is this a serious post? Am I being punked?

I mean, there's wikipedia for stupid questions with easy answers.
 
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Which is still a stupid change. Flanders should not belong de-jure to the Kingdom of France and Frisia should have just been taken out of de-jure HRE instead.

So for the Flemish it changes from the "unjust yoke of the Kaiser" to the "unjust yoke of the French King".

Flanders was under legal, though sometimes tenuous or even nominal control of the French crown throughout the game's time span. It was never part of Frisia.
 
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I think everyone prefers free-speaking devs who are genuine, etc. But there's a difference between not being genuine and replying sarcastic smartass. Hopefully.

It's your own problem if you suffer complexes that make you go crazy whenever someone doesn't talk 100% formally to you. A normal person would just laugh it off and wait for other replies to see correct info. If you ever socialized with other people you would know that jokes like these are common.
And that's without mentioning that his own reply sounded more like a sarcastic remark than a serious inquiry. Maybe he sounded serious to himself, but to some others he sounded like he was being sarcastic himself. And to those that did take him seriously, his choice of words made him sound rude.
 
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Cats originated in Egypt by the way, so they would have been in Europe a long time before being in the Americas.
If you were being Sarcastic I apologize.

The first known domestication of cats was done by Kittyllinati secret society in Ur shortly after the founding of the city.
 
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