Written Character History (Like EU3)

[LordofSaxony]

We could take a page EU3's history write-up of it's rulers (which you see when you retire), but apply it to a current ruler for CK2. I'll give you an example..

Charles of Lancaster was born in 1102 to Duke Jon of Lancaster and the Duchess Mary of Lancaster. He had a passion for the arts, was religiously faithful, and was considered a brilliant tactician. He inherited his father's drinking problem and was known to be a raving drunk. He became King Charles IV of England in 1118 by inheritance. He participated in the bold English-French War of Conquest in the year 1120 where he lead an army of 2,000 men against an army of 10,000 men in the Battle of Agincourt, which he emerged triumphant. Charles participated in the Crusade for Jerusalem, which was initiated by Pope Leo IX in 1121. He participated in the disastrous Battle of Antioch in the year 1123 where he was defeated. Charles of Lancaster succumbed to his wounds in the Battle of Antioch and died in 1123. During his lifetime he saw the provinces of Agincourt, Crécy and Poitiers gained. People remember him by the name, King Charles the Bold.

The biggest thing that I hope for, is probably something really small. I hope they round the army counts to whole numbers. Instead of seeing "an army of 4,912" you instead see "an army of 5,000". Usually in history you don't see the exact number, but rather a rough estimate.

The traits can be written into sentences, for example a trait of pious could read " he is religiously faithful" or something. I have a strange feeling they are already planning on doing this.

 

[Aubrey]

Somewhat related to this is the concept of honors and/or recognition after death. The two things I always wanted to see were (1) a ranking of your various in terms of their accomplishments (very similar to the EU3 text for countries) and (2) sainthoods for kings.

If someone had massive piety, they should be sainted after their death (giving a small boost to clerical loyalty, but massive hits if a ruler goes heretical)...or it could be a special action that depends on papal relations or outright controlling the papacy.

 

[Count of Reval]

Everything that helps the player to remember his or her current ruler's grand-grandfather's heroic deeds would be most welcome (my memory, at least, is capable only to keep track of the 2 last generations in CK, not more). Family Tree and some auto-AAR feature would alleviate this mnemonic problem and create a stronger feel that you are indeed "forging a Dynasty to rule a Kingdom" and not just playing one ruler after another with no deeper emotional connection between them.

 

[vadermath]

I honestly assumed this concept was a given when CKII was announced, seeing as (the much less character-centered) EUIII had a form of it. Though I honestly prefer the chronology-like character system Rome had. This feature would have to be the most expansive and improved upon in CKII of all Paradox games, for obvious gameplay reasons.

 

[Woody Man]

Only if it's well written, the EU3 one wasn't great language wise.

 

[LordofSaxony]

I honestly assumed this concept was a given when CKII was announced, seeing as (the much less character-centered) EUIII had a form of it. Though I honestly prefer the chronology-like character system Rome had. This feature would have to be the most expansive and improved upon in CKII of all Paradox games, for obvious gameplay reasons.

For me personally, I'm hoping it's going to look like a history article, so it looks like it was actually written by someone.

 

[Hawkeye1489]

I definitely agree that this feature should be included, especially the further from the start date you get, the more important something like this becomes. Plus, it eliminates all that excess paper that floats around my desk as I am forced to take notes on who did what and how they are related.

 

[Buladelu]

...And he's known just for his gluttony.

To develop the idea: family history could be wikified. Maybe like Mount & Blade: He has children Mary and Charles (with links) and was a mortal enemy of Robert Cornwell (link).

There's so much possibilities that it's hard to stop imagination. STOP!

 

[LordofSaxony]

...And he's known just for his gluttony.

To develop the idea: family history could be wikified. Maybe like Mount & Blade: He has children Mary and Charles (with links) and was a mortal enemy of Robert Cornwell (link).

There's so much possibilities that it's hard to stop imagination. STOP!

You know what's funny, is that when I was writing that I was thinking "it should be like Wikipedia" because I was also sitting on the article of Henry V on Wikipedia lol. That would be.. truly awesome if they did that, especially if you can export it.

What do you mean by Mount and Blade, you can have kids in that game? I haven't played since beta.

 

[RedRooster81]

You know what's funny, is that when I was writing that I was thinking "it should be like Wikipedia" because I was also sitting on the article of Henry V on Wikipedia lol. That would be.. truly awesome if they did that, especially if you can export it.

What do you mean by Mount and Blade, you can have kids in that game? I haven't played since beta.

That sounds like a ready-made AAR Maybe there should be a "historian's notes" section of the court menu? Hmmm?

M&B has character sheets for each character in the game, including yours, with a portrait (generated by FaceGen and the same used for in game interactions), listing titles, fiefs granted, and prestige.

 

[General_BT]

I'd definitely love to see some sort of wiki-ish family tree or history going on. It would add IMMENSELY to the immersion of the game--as well as making keeping track of inheritances for far flung families far easier...

 

[unmerged(67329)]

The problem with a feature like this is that it is quite vulnerable to a form of the "uncanny-valley" problem. By that I mean, if it is not extremely well done it will actually hurt immersion rather than help it, because it will awaken expectations of realism that it ultimately can not fulfil (especially when we are talking about really extensive writeups including traits etc.).

So I am wondering if it wouldnt be better to have a rather concise history, that leaves room for imagination (for example, a list of the rulers including their traits in normal symbol form - leaving the wikipedia writeup to your own mind).

 

[unmerged(133776)]

To develop the idea: family history could be wikified. Maybe like Mount & Blade: He has children Mary and Charles (with links) and was a mortal enemy of Robert Cornwell (link). STOP!

What do you mean by Mount and Blade, you can have kids in that game? I haven't played since beta.

What Buladelu is actually referring to, is all of the Info that is accessible, the Rulers/Realms/Locations/Characters are hyper-linked. You own such-and-such fief, that fief is clickable and you can then go to that page, and keep going to a further page, etc.

 

[unmerged(133776)]

,,, because it will awaken expectations of realism that it ultimately can not fulfil (especially when we are talking about really extensive writeups including traits etc.).

I too am curious. How in-depth should it be when dealing with Traits? Only those the character had at death? But then most characters will have the illness traits. All traits they ever had in their life? Then there will be too much info (you'd need dates of when they got the trait and when they lost it and a believable immersion reason for why they both got it and lost it)? So we'd need lots and lots of possible reasons to get (and lose) each trait and the game would randomly give them out (for you don't want every character to have the same reason they got Coward trait).

It'd just be way too hard for a computer program to write up a believable story about each different character (and that story probably isn't the same one you thought up as you were playing that character).

So I agree, the less info the better, or just give us the dry facts, we'll make up the stories.

Edit: It could be nice if they gave us a way to add our own info/notes into the game, into that character/Realm/Title/whatever's page.

 

[Lord Blekinge]

I would be happy with anything that resembles HTT, that way avoiding the copious amount of notes you sometimes write when charting your dynasties history.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

It's a good idea that I already expected to see, but I definitely don't want this:

Kiwi I wisely did arrange festival. Kiwi I, against the better judgement of court, did arrange festival. Kiwi I did arrange festival. Kiwi I, against the better judgement of court, did arrange festival. Kiwi I wisely did arrange festival. Kiwi I wisely did arrange festival. Kiwi I did arrange festival. Kiwi I, against the better judgement of court, did arrange festival. Kiwi I wisely did arrange festival. Kiwi I wisely did arrange festival. Kiwi I, against the better judgement of court, did arrange festival. Kiwi I, against the better judgement of court, did arrange festival. Kiwi I, against the better judgement of court, did arrange festival. Kiwi I foolishly made the decision to The Country Shall Be Uber-Powerful. Kiwi I fought in the unsuccessful war of the reconquest of Timbuktu. The war was practically decided when the 13483 men of NZ, led by <no leader>, were practically unscathed fighting the 1623 men of The Shrimp Farmers, led by <no leader>, who were practically unscathed. The province of Timbuktu was gained in his reign.

Or any CK equivalent.

 

[the_legion]

Only if it's well written, the EU3 one wasn't great language wise.

That's it. Auto-Text cannot into grammer

 

[Arko]

just a concise story line like a notepad is enough
with dates, war/peace dates, birth date marrige essential events like excomm assasination decisive battles etc...

the well written thing is too much to except from a game. it belongs to the players to write the AAR themselves : it's where the fun is

edit : to expect
<< not so good to speak in english... it is a bit easy to deride

 

[nyah]

the well written thing is too much to except from a game

or from a forumite. (edit: alright, sorry, just made me laugh. No offense meant.)


Anyway, +1 to the OP.

 

[LordofSaxony]

just a concise story line like a notepad is enough
with dates, war/peace dates, birth date marrige essential events like excomm assasination decisive battles etc...

the well written thing is too much to except from a game. it belongs to the players to write the AAR themselves : it's where the fun is

How is it too much from a game? It could follow the same premise as what's in EU3: HttT right this very second. Even just using what EU3 does in terms of it's monarchs and recording it's history would be just fine, although it could use a bit of tweaking. If it's a simple listing of dates and events I would probably find it a bit dry and wouldn't bother reading it. I think it's enjoyable to have an automated mini-AAR of your heads of the family, and it would only compliment anyone doing actual written AAR's because they can use that as a reference itself.