CK2 Dev Diary #46: Surveying the Survey

[Norse Imperator]

1. New Events - With an overwhelming majority of 73,16% appreciating this type of addition very much.
   
   
2. New Starting Dates - With 51,53% appreciating this type of addition very much.
   
   
3. Reworked Previously Existing Features - With 44,25% appreciating this type of addition very much.
   
   
4. Expanded Map - With 38,94% appreciating this type of addition very much.
   
   
5. New Succession Laws - With 29,16% appreciating this type of addition very much.
   
   
6. Interface Skins - With 25,24% appreciating this type of addition very much.

I guess i am one of those people who wants another starting date. I would like to have one starting date in the mid to late 900s because here are a few interesting things that happened back then.

1. The Caliphate of Cordoba is one the brink of collapse and is about to fracture into the various Taifa states, leading to the decline of Islamic rule in favor of the Christians to the north.

2. Otto the Great of Saxony is about to restore the Holy Roman Empire that Charlemagne had built centuries prior, but he has to fight against other German rulers and withstand the numerous Viking raids that are now stronger than ever.

3. Speaking of the Vikings, they have now asserted their influence across all of Europe and the Viking age has reached its Zenith. But after more than a century of nearly constant raiding on a regular basis, most of western Europe has gotten used to their frequent attacks and have now built formidable castles to keep them out, making it harder to raid. That along with the rise of christianity in Scandinavia and the slow breakup of the Norse culture marks the beginning of the end of the Viking age.

4. Further east, it's a completely different story. The descendants of Rurik have expand across eastern Europe and have even adopted many slavic traditions. However, one day King Vladimir the Great decides that it's time to abandon Slavic paganism in favor of one of the neighboring faiths(Judaism, Sunni Islam and Orthodox Christianity).

 

[HandicapdHippo]

They made it because the concept is extremely straightforward (Aztecs invade Europe) and requires only a couple events and a few pieces of art. As far as DLCs go, SI probably required the least investment to create. Aztec religion is functionally identical to most other pagan religions except with pseudo-Norse events.

Compare any DLC that implements new game rules or a new UI - whether that's college of cardinals, life focus screen, retinues, etc. SI could have been created entirely by a modder.

Indeed its basically one of the most standalone DLC, a huge chunk of the complaints where about how silly it is but you lose nothing by not buying it as there are not extra mechanics that require the DLC like there are in pretty much all the other content DLC's.

 

[Dagda]

They made it because the concept is extremely straightforward (Aztecs invade Europe) and requires only a couple events and a few pieces of art. As far as DLCs go, SI probably required the least investment to create. Aztec religion is functionally identical to most other pagan religions except with pseudo-Norse events.

Compare any DLC that implements new game rules or a new UI - whether that's college of cardinals, life focus screen, retinues, etc. SI could have been created entirely by a modder.

Indeed its basically one of the most standalone DLC, a huge chunk of the complaints where about how silly it is but you lose nothing by not buying it as there are not extra mechanics that require the DLC like there are in pretty much all the other content DLC's.

True, which makes the price point for it a bit tough to swallow. Especially when I think (Johan?) said it was made mostly on a few devs spare time. If it didn't tie up company resources then it really should be cheaper or a FLC or something.

At the time it was released, it was just a weird tonal shift compared to both CK and CKII when there were many other pressing issues (content and balance-wise) that could have been addressed.

 

[Barón Rojo]

Bashing Sunset Invasion is easy, I want to know what are the dlcs that raised least interest/worse expectations beyond it.

 

[balmung60]

All I ask for if you add more start dates is please don't push it any earlier. Fill in one of the pre-1066 gaps, sure, but 769 is already unfun enough and I'm not sure about everyone else, but I never even use all of 1066-1453, much less an extral two or three hundred years.

 

[Kayden_II]

New Events - With an overwhelming majority of 73,16% appreciating this type of addition very much.

I don't know ...

New Starting Dates - With 51,53% appreciating this type of addition very much.

I don't really care !^^

Reworked Previously Existing Features - With 44,25% appreciating this type of addition very much.

OOOH YES ! ...

Expanded Map - With 38,94% appreciating this type of addition very much.

NO - More the Opposite aka Removing of India !^^ ...

New Succession Laws - With 29,16% appreciating this type of addition very much.

I don't know ...

Interface Skins - With 25,24% appreciating this type of addition very much.

... What is This ? - Portrait-Skins or Interface-Quality-of-Life-Improvements ? ...

And about the Survey: As a casual Player like Me since I'm playing as a feudal Ruler (mostly), the Questions were too specific, so that I can't really say Soemthing about Pagans, Nomads, Rajas, Sultans and so On, so that I haven't participated.

 

[Es57]

• Least: Zun Religion (This is the feature that interested the least players overall, with 46,22% rating this feature as uninteresting, narrowly beating Jungle Terrain by ~4%)

Blasphemy ! The almighty Zun will burn their eyes with His divine radiance !

 

[luanmameili]

Expanded Map - With 38,94% appreciating this type of addition very much.

Yes! I would be much pleased if I can play as a Korean character without a MOD!
(I was born in Korea, but now I live in China)

 

[TheDungen]

That seems a bit oversimplified, I mean things like "Didn't live up to it's potential" don't mean that a thing was bad just that it could have been better.

Also I would like to repeat that at least in my case appreciating new start dates should not be read as desiring it to push further back in time.

 

[Llyw olaf]

I hope you aren't seeing these results as a request for more start dates...

I can see it now...
CRUSADER KINGS 3, start date: 300BC.
I'm hoping it's more about filling in the gaps between the earlier bookmarks, which I support, and not about going back further.
I feel that anything earlier than Charlemagne needs a new game/series.

Seeing the popularity of custom Kingdoms, which I turn off, any details about the Ruler designer? I never use it anymore, preferring historical characters and dynasties, but I highly suspect I'm in the minority as I am with my preference for non-Catholic and later bookmark campaigns. I know custom nations are the most popular in EUIV.

 

[Grand Historian]

They can call it: Sunrise Invasion.

Then wouldn't that be a Japanese invasion instead?

 

[SophiaIsBased]

They could just troll us even further by giving us another Sunset Invasion, but instead of the Aztecs invading Europe, the Chinese will invade India. How about that?

I would buy that just to get access to the chinese culture in the ruler designer

 

[Arizal]

Bashing Sunset Invasion is easy, I want to know what are the dlcs that raised least interest/worse expectations beyond it.

Yes, we all know Sunset Invasion is the worst of them all. It would have been more interesting to set aside this minor expansion to focus on the major ones.

 

[rageair]

Interesting! Will we ever see data showing most played starting characters/states? Or perhaps most and least created formable titles? (Roman Empire or the Kingdom of Ireland for example)

Maybe, that is telemetry and not survey material though. I'm sure we'll have another telemetry DD in the future. Anyway, as far as I remember from the last set of telemetry data I saw, there aren't any trends regarding which characters/titles players pick like there is in EU4, I think the most popular title was just over one % or something. As for start dates I remember that it was a fairly even split between 769, 867 and 1066.

Bashing Sunset Invasion is easy, I want to know what are the dlcs that raised least interest/worse expectations beyond it.

There wasn't any that stood out, all other DLC's were fairly well received. Of the well received I believe that Rajas of India was the least well received, but after that it's such a close tie between a multitude of DLC's that it's hardly interesting.

 

[SolSys]

... no one even asked for it.

That's a rather problematic statement**. There are too many of everyday products/activities that took off without people asking for them for the above to carry weight.
In general, people cannot ask for something if they can't think/imagine/know about it.


**this is regardless of whether Sunset Invasion is good/bad.

Edit: you can, however, turn it around by saying that if they made a survey regarding SI [before commencing work on it] then they could have seen if it was asked for.

 

[TheDungen]

I hope you aren't seeing these results as a request for more start dates...

I don't mind more of them if they are later ones. Also a continue feature like EU4 has would be really nice.

I hope we DO, because it was a fun, cool little optional DLC. Paradox should do more fun, little side things like Sunset Invasion.

Didn't they already? I felt M&M was kind of similiar. Received very differently though.

Because us asking for it simply isn't a prerequisite for them making it? Because they knew some portion of the player base would find it fun?

What I wanna see is the Aztecs get more diverse and sail into the mediterranean. This is not my idea it comes from a certain bearded CK2 streamer (https://www.twitch.tv/cringer63) I watch.

Especially now with rules why not give the Aztec's the ability to sail into the mediterranean and attack anyone there? I know part of their purpose was to provide a cool eastern horde but really enabling them to also attack the more central realms would just spice things up, add to the emergent story possibilities.

I wouldn't mind the sunset invasion if they weren't aztecs but something which makes sense in the timeframe.

I'm a little surprised The Republic was not one of the three least-used DLCs. Republics are fun, but I reckoned the paucity of starts compared to say, the Sword of Islam, would have seen it drop. Maybe we're all still hunting those elusive 80 trade posts?

I wouldn't want to see the timeline going back any further, but filling in some of the gaps between the earlier start dates? Count me in! Would love the histories between 869 and 1066 to be populated so we could do battle with folk like Cnut the Great, ruler of Denmark, England and Norway.

No idea what that is about 80 trade posts some achievement or something? Not all of us are achievement hunters you know.
As for the republic I always play with it on, why woudn't I? Sure I don't actually play AS a republic all that often, it's a bit to restricted (No fighting other republics under the same liege, severe limitations on when you can take tradeposts and so on).

I remember the furore over Sunset Invasion. It must have been the most poorest DLC ever put out by Paradox. Even Together For Victory pales in comparison.

Together to victory was a great DLC, i was sceptical to it at first but those focus trees were much better than the vanilla ones.

I was somewhat suprised that pilgrimages were at the top of Sons of Abraham and the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel at the bottom considering how the pilgrimages often feel like an irrelevant side part of the game (though a nice event chain) while Israel allows one to play the jews similarly to the Zoroastrians in one's goals.

? I do a pilgrimage on every character, it's free relationship with every same religion character. As soon as I get to play them I switch them to religious focus once my council is done being discontent I go on a pilgrimage the I go trade focus if the traderoute is not up in my capital or scholarship if it is. And if I have time after finishing scholarship I go trade focus.
On the other hand who plays jews?

 

[luanmameili]

I can see it now...
CRUSADER KINGS 3, start date: 300BC.

The engine of CK2 cannot support negative years.
As for CK3...uhhh...maybe it is yet too early to talk about it.

 

[samin]

Sunset Invasion will always be the odd one out. It still has its place, is gameplay-wise well designed content (balance notwithstanding) and is generally bashed on simply because it's the odd one. The one that doesn't fit.

That's like taking a survey what your favorite ice cream is: vanilla, chocolate or bacon. Of course bacon will be the least favorite, but still even people who never tried it will bash it just because it doesn't fit to ice cream in their frame of mind. Of course you can not like it, but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate its objective value.

 

[Caspoi]

? I do a pilgrimage on every character, it's free relationship with every same religion character. As soon as I get to play them I switch them to religious focus once my council is done being discontent I go on a pilgrimage the I go trade focus if the traderoute is not up in my capital or scholarship if it is. And if I have time after finishing scholarship I go trade focus.
On the other hand who plays jews?

I don't play catholics all that much which is probably why I don't use it a lot, but with jews I would imagine quite a few have at least played them once or twice and then the quest to form Israel would be central in most playthroughs.

 

[neusaap]

NO - More the Opposit aka Removing of India !^^ ...

You're the one to pay up for the lost dlcontent they removed just because you can't afford a proper CPU