• 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 #81 - Cleaning up the Map

Greetings!

The last few Dev Diaries have had you visit the Cartographer’s office to look at several reworked areas of the map - while there are more, we don’t want to show them all in a row, lest we risk you getting bored of them!

Today we will instead take a look at a minor free feature, an optional new Game Rule that might just help those of us that really can’t stand irregular borders! Like the map changes, this change will arrive in the free update that will accompany the next expansion. This feature is a pet project of mine, and an attempt to cure situations such as these:
Bordergore_example.png

As you can see in this example, Scotland holds a province in mainland Anatolia. There’s no logical way for them to control this territory - there’s no land connection, it’s not connected via ports, and it’s not part of their De Jure area.

The Game Rule is called ‘Exclave Independence', and aims to do just that - set exclaves independent. Being an optional Game Rule, it’s very modular, and is mainly intended as a tool for increasing immersion.
Exclave_GR.png


The Scotland example pictured previously is really the worst case scenario, and would be covered by any of the settings. As the ruler of Scotland dies, the game will try to identify any ‘exclaves’ and take appropriate action. If there are rulers whose land is completely situated in an exclave, they will be set independent, otherwise a peasant leader will seize control of the land. In this case the result will look like this:
Bordergore_cured.png


I can tell you that, if you’re like me, the difference playing with this Game Rule is like night and day. After a few hundred years you’ll no longer have a map that makes you want to claw your eyes out! As I mentioned earlier there are many different settings, and here is a full list of them:
Added the ‘Exclave Independence’ Game Rule, with the purpose of eliminating disconnected land on succession. As long as the new ruler during a succession isn’t at war, their exclaves should be set independent according to the setting. If the AI is at war during succession, they will try to remove exclaves once every year until such a time they are no longer at war (does not apply to Players). Settings:
  • Off - The default option, no removal.
  • Limited - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected to the Capital area with gaps no larger than one County, via a naval path or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Limited (Naval) - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected to the Capital area with gaps no larger than one County, via a limited naval path (1000 distance units) or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Significant - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected via a naval path or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Harsh - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless as they are connected via a limited naval path (1000 distance units) or part of the characters primary De Jure.
  • Total - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless as they are connected via a limited naval path (1000 distance units). Disables Achievements.

To show a more tangible example, I loaded up an old save and added the Game Rule to it. It looked like this:
Exclave_ex2.png


After the death of the ruler of the Mongol Empire (the light blue spots) the result produced this:
Exclave_cure_mongol.png


And after the death of the King of Bengal:
Exclave_cure2.png

As you can see, the two Mongol provinces were overtaken by Peasant Leaders as they were much too far away from their steppe overlords. Bengals land, on the other hand, simply had the vassals declare independence, as they held no land in non-exclave land.

I hope this small feature will be of interest to some of you, in the next DD we will return to the cartographer's office with another exciting update!

Please note that the time between Dev Diaries will be irregular, as we’re still early in the development cycle.
 
If that's the case, this may be one of the greatest little changes to this game ever. Little Uighur Sunni cultural exclaves ending up in pagan Finland years after the Mongol conquests because Mongols are terrible at handing out land is a thing of the past.
Yes, exactly - this is something I've been wanting myself for absolute ages, and it works great in practice. As an added bonus it also makes converting the game to EU4 produce much better borders.
 
How do holdings smaller than a county mesh with this? I’m thinking in particular of the Holy Orders, who can have scattered holdings across the map.
 
Yes, exactly - this is something I've been wanting myself for absolute ages, and it works great in practice. As an added bonus it also makes converting the game to EU4 produce much better borders.
So I assume the converter will be updated to work with EU4 1.25 at some point? And also that russian_culture bug. Not trying to rush things, I just found it last week so it was fresh on my mind.
 
How do holdings smaller than a county mesh with this? I’m thinking in particular of the Holy Orders, who can have scattered holdings across the map.
Holy Orders are exempt from this system, as they historically had holdings all over the place. Otherwise stray baronies work exactly as counties.

So I assume the converter will be updated to work with EU4 1.25 at some point? And also that russian_culture bug.
The converter is already updated for 1.25. Also if you're referring to not being able to form Russia in EU4 that's because converted CK2 games are run with 'normal_or_historical_nations = no', which blocks most formable nations.
 
How do holdings smaller than a county mesh with this? I’m thinking in particular of the Holy Orders, who can have scattered holdings across the map.
Probably shouldn't be affected I would think?
Holy Orders are exempt from this system, as they historically had holdings all over the place. Otherwise stray baronies work exactly as counties.


The converter is already updated for 1.25. Also if you're referring to not being able to form Russia in EU4 that's because converted CK2 games are run with 'normal_or_historical_nations = no', which blocks most formable nations.
Yeah, I edited the mod to make it work. I was referring to a separate occurrence where every single other tag can be formed properly if you edit it to yes except for Russia. It's because only three cultures can form Russia in EU4. Novgorodian, Muscovite, and Ryazanian. Since Muscovite is a localization of Russian culture, the culture it really wants is Russian, but the converter converts Russian culture into EU4 as Russian_Culture instead of Russian. This means every other formable tag can form if you edit it to yes, EXCEPT for Russia. I guess I could edit the decision to include Russian_culture myself, and I probably will. I just felt like pointing it out. (and I always hated the 'normal_or_historical_nations = no' thing anyway, even in vanilla)
 
Polishing up the Map, Cleaning up the Map… You're running out of ideas for DD's names! Bad sign
 
Polishing up the Map, Cleaning up the Map… You're running out of ideas for DD's names! Bad sign
It was Polishing Poland actually, alliteration is the name of the game when it comes to map-based updates! It's gonna be harder to come up with good ones in future DD's though, as the easy ones have been done already...
 
How does this interact with Gavelkind succession? I own an exclave will I end up with an independent son owning the exclave, or will it be seized by a peasant?
This system does not interact poorly with Gavelkind, I tested it quite a bit to make sure. You won't end up with new rulers getting everything insta-removed, as that would have made for a poor experience.
 
It was Polishing Poland actually, alliteration is the name of the game when it comes to map-based updates! It's gonna be harder to come up with good ones in future DD's though, as the easy ones have been done already...

How about "Rushing into Rus"?
 
So, let's say my ruler dies and I lose a few remote, isolated counties. Does my new ruler get a claim (weak or otherwise) to press for war and potentially win them back?
 
What's the 'default' setting going to be for some of us that have long ongoing games? Will it change to a new non-bordergore mode for old saves?

I'm currently in the 1170s in a playthrough for the Seven Centuries achievement and want to know if when the patch lands what to expect from enclave behaviour. Rushing the game to 1453 isn't going to be able to happen, nor is offline play (because achievements require Steam connected & online).

Edit:

Should have read the thread more closely

"No purging is default rule." - https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...81-cleaning-up-the-map.1087927/#post-24073277

Phew.

Thanks guys! My efforts to expand the Byzantine Empire from Brittany outwards kinda needed that.