• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

CK2 Dev Diary #61: The Dragon Throne

Hello folks!

The Swedish summer vacations are drawing to a close and I’m back and eager to talk some more Crusader Kings! What better way to kick off the end of summer than by revealing the theme of the next expansion? Yes my friends, it’s China! Now, before you get all emotional one way or the other, we’re not actually going to expand the map farther east. We considered doing that, long and hard, but eventually decided on a different approach that would not strain performance and stability beyond reason. As I mentioned in Dev Diary #51, it bothers me that the eastern edge of the map just cuts off in such an unnatural way. Playing in the Orient, you should always feel like you’re in the shadow of the Dragon. It should be an interesting and dynamic region right in the center of the Old World. So, we came up with the idea of adding China as a political entity even though you cannot actually see most of its territory.

The Dragon Throne.png


There is a new screen you can open up, which, if you’re within range of China, allows you to interact with the Emperor in various interesting ways. China can grant many wonderful boons if you’re in the emperor’s good graces, but, depending on the current status and policy of the Dragon Throne, the emperor can also decide you’d better show some respect and become a tributary state. When there is turmoil in China, displaced or fleeing armies can arrive on the map and cause all kinds of trouble. China can even seize and rule actual provinces, but the emperor leaves the governing of such areas to the Governor of the Western Protectorate (or, to be a stickler, the “Protectorate General to Pacify the West”.) Potentially, this on-map part of China can grow enormously powerful, but you should not have to worry too much as long as you enjoy the emperor’s grace…

That’s going to be all for now. I’m sure you have a million questions, but you’ll have to wait for the upcoming dev diaries. :)

Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our CK2 livestreams between 16 to 18:00 CET!
 
Less, I'd wager.

The British Isles at least became somewhat relevant post-Norman invasion.
Not really.
The hundred years war is the only remotely important the english does in this timeframe, and even then the king of england held more power as a french duke than as king of england.

Ok maybe it's a bit exaggerated but I'm a bit bitter about how many provinces and holdings (and slots) England has in ck2 compared to their relevance. They should not be more than at best on par with the low countries.
 
I'm betting this expansion will add playable non-dynastic countries, like theocracies and (this is what I'm basing this on) the Chinese Western Protectorate.
 
This is the most half-assed thing I've ever seen.

I'd say it's disappointing, and I'm being 100% honest here, but I had no expectations to begin with. There isn't a good reason that China can't be in the game and that's just a fact. We'll hear a little bit here and there about how the engine can't support the provinces or how there's some hardcoded problems with incorporating this or that aspect of the Asian systems, but what it ultimately comes down to is effort and choice. There are Ways to make a grand strategy game with Europe and China in it (Paradox has made a few games, I believe, that include both Europe and China), and Paradox does not want CK2 to be that game. Since there are some fans, however, who see the advantage in having a game span all across Eurasia, Paradox wanted to pander to them and... this is what they came up with.

Almost disappointing, but just to be expected.
 
Last edited:
They are talking about turmoil in the dev diary, so they will probably be some events. Though I doubt we will have the tripartite Song-(Liao)Jin-Xia situation represented.

I wonder who will be the Emperor in post Tang dates (after 907). The Song Dynasty was weak and paid tribute to the Khitan lead Liao Dynasty along with Korea and Western Xia paid tribute to no one. Both Xia and Liao can be represented on the CK2 map but not the Song. The Liao then fled to Central Asia once the Jurchen lead Jin Dynasty rose to power in the 12th century (which controlled no part of the CK2 map). I rarely play vanilla so I'm not sure if this is represented in game but I know HIP shows Qara Khitai in Central Asia.

After 1279 it'd be the Mongol lead Yuan Dynasty.
 
Nice job of threading the needle between the desire for having China in the game, and the desire for the game to still be playable. I shall be watching this with interest.
 
In mods, maybe.

As DLC, I highly doubt it. They had nowhere near the same impact on the worldmap as China did at that time, not to mention, they're considerably further away.
I definitely agree in the case of Japan, but SEA, as far as I'm aware, interacted fairly heavily with India and the Middle East due to trade, resulting in the spread of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam there, for example. The Chola dynasty in southern India even managed to colonize parts of Indonesia. If the new mechanics can support off map regions without a central ruler (of course there are the Srivijaya and Majapahit, but I'm talking about the whole region), I think that SEA would be justifiable in the DLC or at least a mod.
 
I wonder who will be the Emperor in post Tang dates (after 907). The Song Dynasty was weak and paid tribute to the Khitan lead Liao Dynasty along with Korea and Western Xia paid tribute to no one. Both Xia and Liao can be represented on the CK2 map but not the Song. The Liao then fled to Central Asia once the Jurchen lead Jin Dynasty rose to power in the 12th century (which controlled no part of the CK2 map). I rarely play vanilla so I'm not sure if this is represented in game but I know HIP shows Qara Khitai in Central Asia.

After 1279 it'd be the Mongol lead Yuan Dynasty.
Xia did sometime pay tribute to Liao like for example during Yizong's reign. My guess they will have Song portrayed by this mechanic, as the "true" China.
 
There isn't a good reason that China can't be in the game and that's just a fact.

Did you play the game before India was added? It TANKED performance, adding China would just slow this game down even more. FACT.
 
Did you play the game before India was added? It TANKED performance, adding China would just slow this game down even more. FACT.
I like the direction Paradox is taking, so I'm not suggesting that China be added to the map, but I don't think that it would tank performance too much. Granted, I didn't start playing the game until well after RoI was released, so I don't know how much performance decreased, but there's a mod called Tianxia which adds all of East Asia to the game and I can hardly tell a difference in performance between that and vanilla.
 
What sort of mechanics should the HRE of this period have that would be unique to them?

The Prince-Electors are the first thing that comes to mind, as the current HRE mechanics barely even resemble the historical HRE. Just working with the Prince-Electors, you could add a lot of events and decisions, such as issuing Imperial Bulls, or having an actual Imperial election. You could also potentially add the Diet, Imperial Bans, and better flavour for Anti-Popes and Investiture disputes. Playable Imperial Cities/Inland Republics would also be possible to be included in this.

Imo, HRE should be its own government type, with a unique succession system, art, and interface. If Paradox made this, I would, for the first time ever, buy a major DLC when it wasn't on sale. I'd purchase it faster than you could say Reichsstädtekollegium.

On a side note, I'm hoping Paradox fixes CKII's horribly broken justice system in the next update.
 
The Prince-Electors are the first thing that comes to mind, as the current HRE mechanics barely even resemble the historical HRE. Just working with the Prince-Electors, you could add a lot of events and decisions, such as issuing Imperial Bulls, or having an actual Imperial election. You could also potentially add the Diet, Imperial Bans, and better flavour for Anti-Popes and Investiture disputes. Playable Imperial Cities/Inland Republics would also be possible to be included in this.

Imo, HRE should be its own government type, with a unique succession system, art, and interface. If Paradox made this, I would, for the first time ever, buy a major DLC when it wasn't on sale. I'd purchase it faster than you could say Reichsstädtekollegium.

On a side note, I'm hoping Paradox fixes CKII's horribly broken justice system in the next update.

You know the Prince-Electors only come into play after the Golden Bull of 1356? After the last start date? People should stop confusing the EU era HRE with the medieval one. In the middle ages the HRE was more centralised than France. This only changed during the late middle ages.
 
You know the Prince-Electors only come into play after the Golden Bull of 1356? After the last start date? People should stop confusing the EU era HRE with the medieval one. In the middle ages the HRE was more centralised than France. This only changed during the late middle ages.

No, the number and composition of the Prince-Electors was only formalized after the Golden Bull of 1356. The Kurfürst were first mentioned in the 12th Century, and Pope Urban IV describes the election of the Reich as being held according to "immemorial custom". Historically, the Electors were the Archbishops of Koln, Trier, and Mainz, along with a respresentive of each of the "four nations" of Germany: the Franks, the Saxons, the Bavarians, and the Swabians. This of course, shifted over time, but the principles have been there since Otto's election as Emperor by the Saxon Dukes.
 
Last edited:
What's hilarious about this expansion is that even the largest posts on reddit and the forums aren't even about the China aspect it brings. People are writing text walls about bringing features to HRE or Byzantines. What is even the point of this expansion?