Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries
Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • 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.
Crusader Kings II 69946 Bug Reports 19719 User Modifications 10605 Suggestions 5969 Tech Support 6375 After Action Reports
Previous dev diary Next dev diary
Show only dev responses

CK2 Dev Diary #79 - Beautifying the Baltics

Greetings!

Work is progressing splendidly on the upcoming expansion, alas it is still much too early to start talking about any of its many features. Instead, we’ll continue our tour of the cartographer's office.

As I mentioned in the last Dev Diary we’re working our way through some of the more neglected areas of the map - primarily (but not exclusively) focusing our efforts on areas that weren’t that interesting to play in. This time around we’re teasing the upcoming changes to the Baltics, primarily based on tribes that populated the region before the Northern Crusades, again courtesy of [Arthur-PDX]. This time I thought of providing you with a side-by-side comparison, so you can see the changes for yourselves, without having to boot up the game:
Baltics Update.png


Code: 
- Map Update to the Baltics
       - Major overhaul to the Baltic region (mostly encompassing the Kingdom of Lithuania's DeJure territory)
      - (Major) river Daugava moved and reshaped a bit for more accuracy
       - Minor river crossings in Lithuania reshaped for more accuracy
      - 7 provinces added to enhance pre-Livonian Order flavour
       - New duchy of Latgale added
      - All old provinces in the DeJure Lithuanian Kingdom's territory have been reshaped for more historical & cultural accuracy
      - New kingdom of Estonia, formable by holding the duchies of Estonia and the new duchy of Kalava

Please note that the time between Dev Diaries will be irregular, as we’re very early in the development cycle.
 
Sort by date Sort by reaction score
@rageair Are you only fixing map and adding provinces, or do you want represent this region better, as there are many things to fix?
For example province of Marienburg should be named differently if holded by prussian character, Yotvingians (Sudovians) should have prussian culture not lithuanian, as they were more connected to Old Prussians, Grodno and Podlasie shouldn't be in duchy of Yatvingia, as Yotvingians didn't rule those lands, Scalovia should be independent, etc. And from XIII century we know most of rulers in this area, so whole region could be better represented.
Overally Baltic region is really badly done historicaly and it should be remade.
 
Last edited:
Galleblære said:
Hope to see some changes to Norway in this expansion. 2-3 more provinces on the west coast with the same size/density as the east coast to signify how important this area was compared to the eastern part of Norway.

Naumadal split into
Naumdælfylki (Northern part, could contain parts of Hålogaland)
Strindafylki (Move "Bishiopric of Nidaros and "Nidaros city" here)
​
Nidaros split into (And "Bishopric of Nidaros" and "Trondheim city" itself removed from this location as mentioned above)
Raumsdælafylki (north part)
Firdafylki (south part)​

Bergenshus split into
Sygnafylki (north part)
Hordafylki (south part)
​
Click to expand...

As someone who is Norwegian myself .. I can agree, there is some more work that could be done there.
 
nestorius said:
Will Bohemia get a bit of help? I think the big problem is that it is starting to feel far too weak compared to its neighbours. While I realise not all counties are created equal and that Bohemia has some nice counties, It seems though that other states are a bit too powerful. Afterall all counties can be fully upgraded to have 9 holdings. I dont know what would be a good number but maybe increase Bohemia or Moravia or both with 1 county each?
Click to expand...

What start are you playing? Bohemia runs wild in the 769 start from what I see. If anything they need to lose some firepower.
 
Words can't express the love I feel towards you guys now! I was waiting for this for so long, I lost hope it would ever happen. Seriously, thanks!
Now if the Balts only got their own unit models I would be able to die a happy man.
 
Dakkadakka127 said:
Redone Baltic? Teutonic Order clay? What's this? Monastic Order DLC confirmed?
Click to expand...

Confirmation? No. But I am sure it will either be that or some sort of rebublic DLC. They wouldn't focus on that area and introduce an African centered DLC or something like that. It's got to be something including the Slavs or Baltic people.
 
First of, I am from Latvia. Secondly some of the new province names could be better.

Tukums is city name first mentioned in mid-13th century, better name would be Vanema. Vanema was coastal territory that Tukums was part of between Baltic Sea and Gulf of Riga from 11th to 13th century.

What is currently Vanema would better be called Bandava. A territory of the same time period that bordered with Vanema to north and east.

Riga is also city name. It was the most important city, but it was founded at beginning of 13th century. I would rather call the province Livzeme. It is territory first mentioned in 11th century named after tribe of Livs that also gave name to Livonia. The name Livzeme is bit incorrect as it would refer to both sides of Gulf of Riga, but it would still be better than calling the province simply Riga.
a66b54c3e4caf23b3de74e138f6dfcf2--genetics-lithuania.jpg
kar114-w1200.jpg
 
Last edited:
I used to think that there is little hope for large map overhauls, given how the game is nearing the end of its life, but now I have to say, this is shaping up to be absolutely awesome map overhaul. I love every detail of it.
IanReSc said:
Confirmation? No. But I am sure it will either be that or some sort of rebublic DLC. They wouldn't focus on that area and introduce an African centered DLC or something like that. It's got to be something including the Slavs or Baltic people.
Click to expand...
Like when they redid Hungary in a patch that had nothing to do with Hungary, yes?
 
Great revamp.

Having played the Lithuanians (as none could have guessed from my username :rolleyes:), the shape of the provinces in the area was not very pleasant. This is a very welcome improvement.

Though I have a fear that in trying to get a more detailed geography, we will lose on the power-accuracy side. Some areas, like Italy and France (certainly others in parts of the world I know less, like Mesopotamia ?), would need vastly more holdings to have something not too widely distorted.

The limit of 7-holdings per county is probably too low to do this properly however. 6-7 holdings are reserved for exceptional provinces, and 1-2 holdings provinces are very rare too. With the conversion from tribal to feudal gifting 3 holdings per province, there isn't much room for a difference with a similar province count. I guess some kind of population mechanic to do it well would have to wait (at least) CK3.

Could the interface for the smallest supported screensize support a limit of 10-holdings ? (so a 3rd lines of barony-level holding and/or 5 rows)

That would open a lot of room for better accuracy, even if, sadly, it probably requires too much work to be judged doable. I think specially about redoing the bookmarks, and that's not even talking about some siege changes to avoid war lasting eternity and optionally some "county internal management".
 
Considering Baltic tribes those maps should be helpful:
800px-Baltic_Tribes_c_1200.svg.png
Prussian_clans_13th_century.png


As you can see, duchy of Prussia should have more provinces, to better represent various tribes during The Great Prussian Uprising and Chelmno (Kulm) should belong to Poland, and later Teutonic Order.

Also name of Kaunas province is anachronistic.
 
Last edited:
TheDungen said:
But since the eu4 start date of 1444 is in ck2s timeline those aren't mutually exclusive goals.
Click to expand...
Certainly not exclusive. But if the borders crucially changed in the late CK2 period (IMHO late 13th and on), the priority of the map should be to reflect the state closer to 1066 and AFAIK the map is designes that way.
 
Galleblære said:
I ain't no math genius, but I imagine it would be a simple matter of rearranging holdings from all around Norway for example. Eastern Norway is a bit heavy on the holding front, western Norway is too light. We wouldn't want them rock dwellers growing too powerful! ;)

The additional provinces should be there to reflect the terrain and geographic distances as well. It should take a long time to "walk" down the west coast of Norway, so using ships is the way to go.
Click to expand...
Except Paradox already seems reluctant to have one holding provinces in scandinavia, because let's face it a lot of them should be.

Habsburg-Lothringen said:
I know the map updates focus mostly on northern and eastern europe, but could you please add a kingdom level title for Austria?
Click to expand...
Why? The Privilegium Majus wasn't ratified until 1553 three years from the end of the game. And you can already make a custom kingdom.
 
1553 is not three years from the end of the game.
 
TheDungen said:
Except Paradox already seems reluctant to have one holding provinces in scandinavia, because let's face it a lot of them should be.
Click to expand...

It seems you didn't understand my post, and secondly, why should many provinces in Scandinavia have one holding?
 
Dakkadakka127 said:
Redone Baltic? Teutonic Order clay? What's this? Monastic Order DLC confirmed?
Click to expand...

We can only pray for that day, friend.

Habsburg-Lothringen said:
I know the map updates focus mostly on northern and eastern europe, but could you please add a kingdom level title for Austria?
Click to expand...

There's Bavaria for that. IIRC, Austria never became a Kingdom during the Middle Ages. Why would it get a kingdom title?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back