Crusader Kings 2

[civ_king]

Ignoring the performance issue (slows down a lot) ... I enjoyed that game. As a Catalan, to conquer the Iberian peninsula to the crown of Aragon, instead of the Castilian crown was great.

Catalonia came back to dominate the Mediterranean! : P

I assume you made it so Aragon was ruled by Catalans instead of Castellanos? Did you liberate your Occitan brothers?

 

[cybrxkhan]

New Dev Diary, on some of the new events and decisions, as well as a bit of stuff on the Zoroastrians: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Dev-Diary-5-Events-Decisions-and-Zoroastrians


For those who can't see the link or don't want to bother:

Hello, I'm CK2 developer Goosecreature. You may remember me from such Dev Diaries as "Events and Decisions" and "The Heathens are Coming." Today I'll be talking a bit about - you guessed it - the events and decisions of The Old Gods. This DLC will introduce many of these and not just for the Vikings.

As a Norse Pagan, you can hold a blot every nine years during winter. This is a good way of making your vassals like you more, and it is somewhat similar to a feast with one big difference – the human sacrifice. During a blot, four random prisoners will be brought up from your dungeon and you will have to decide whether or not to sacrifice them to the Allfather for prestige and piety. If you have no prisoners, some nameless thralls will be sacrificed instead but this won't bring you nearly as much renown. Anyone can be sacrificed, including close family members, but you will earn extra piety if your victim is a Christian or a Muslim. These are harsh times and the world is not a friendly place.

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Another way of increasing your prestige is to commission a runestone. This can be done only once in a character's lifetime, and you can choose to devote it either to yourself or one of your parents. The Scandinavian dueling tradition of holmgång is also in the game, and Norse characters can, under certain circumstances, challenge each other to single combat on an isolated islet. There are also events for Norse characters leaving to join the Varangian Guard, the discovery of Greenland and Vinland, characters gaining the Viking or Berserker traits, the appearance of the Jomsvikings and the Seljuks, völur (mystic seers) joining your court, and many more.

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The Mongols will have a decision to hold the nerge, a great hunt in which most of their army participates. This is in essence a massive military training exercise that sees the different wings of the Mongol army coordinating maneuvers and driving wildlife before them in close formation. Once encircled, the wildlife is killed and the army gains both provisions and invaluable experience working together as a single fighting force. Doing this will give your armies a morale boost.

Suomenusko pagans will be able to hold the Ukon Juhla festival, where they worship the god Ukko in the hope of improving their harvests. For Romuva pagans, the Užgavenes festival can be held in spring, where effigies to winter are burnt and the coming of summer is celebrated. Finally, Slavic pagans can hold a festival in the name of the god Jarilo, in which a random vassal is given the honor of representing Jarilo and paraded around wearing bells and other glamorous clothing.

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This doesn't cover everything, but as I wanted to write a bit about something else, it will have to do for now.

There have been a lot of requests for us to go into more detail on the Zoroastrians, which is something we hadn't originally planned to do for the Dev Diaries. In order to please YOU (yes, you in particular), the next part of this diary will be devoted to them.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion that originated in Persia. It predates the Abrahamic faiths by quite a bit, and was the state religion of the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid empires. Its decline as a major religion came with the Arab invasion of Persia and the spread of Islam in the 7th century, but pockets would still remain in the Central Asian hinterlands of the former Sassanid Empire centuries later.

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By 867, the common folk in several parts of Persia still cling to Zoroastrianism but they are the subjects of Muslim rulers and their conversion to the Mohammedan faith is only a matter of time. Just north of these domains, along the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, Satrap Vandad of the Karen dynasty rules the last independent Zoroastrian realm on the map. This is a challenging starting position and reclaiming Persia and its holy sites for the Zoroastrian faith will not be easy, but it can be done.

Zoroastrianism is not a member of the Pagan religious group, and so they have no need to reform their religion. They will start the game in 867 without a High Priest, but if you hold the Persian Empire there is a decision to restore the position of the Moabadan-Moabad (the Priest of Priests). Just like the Pope, this priest can grant divorces and sanction invasions against other Zoroastrian realms. You'll probably be the only one at this point, so this likely won't do you much good unless your carefully built Zoroastrian empire fragments in civil war.

Also, Zoroastrian rulers are able to enter holy marriages with close relatives of the opposite gender. Such a sacred union will increase their standing among vassals, but producing a healthy heir may become a problem... fortunately, you can always fall back on your concubines for that.

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If you manage to stage a miraculous Zoroastrian recovery and reclaim the Persian Empire, you will have the option of declaring yourself the Saoshyant, the chosen savior of the world mentioned in prophecy by Zoroaster himself. This will not only earn you a new nickname, but you will also get a new trait that significantly boosts the opinion of all Zoroastrian characters towards you. All future descendants of the Saoshyant will also get a less powerful version of this trait, even if they convert to a different religion.

That's all I have for now. I hope you'll have a pleasant Wednesday!

Oddly they didn't mention the West African pagans.

 

[civ_king]

Which CK2 mod is best?

 

[Arakhor]

My favourite is either Elder Kings (Tamriel) or Glorious Knights and Terrors in the Night (vampire mod), though CK2's Magna Mundi is CK2 Plus, in that it's very popular, but its fans are seemingly obliged to plug its use in response to absolutely any question about how to change a feature in the vanilla game. Other popular ones include The Prince and the Thane or the Games of Thrones mod.

 

[Sonereal]

I haven't played Elder Kings yet, but the Game of Thrones mod is a lot of fun.

 

[civ_king]

My favourite is either Elder Kings (Tamriel) or Glorious Knights and Terrors in the Night (vampire mod), though CK2's Magna Mundi is CK2 Plus, in that it's very popular, but its fans are seemingly obliged to plug its use in response to absolutely any question about how to change a feature in the vanilla game. Other popular ones include The Prince and the Thane or the Games of Thrones mod.

Regarding CK2 I'm more interested into history so which is better, CK2+ or The Prince and the Thane? What are their merits?

 

[NBAfan]

My favourite is either Elder Kings (Tamriel) or Glorious Knights and Terrors in the Night (vampire mod), though CK2's Magna Mundi is CK2 Plus, in that it's very popular, but its fans are seemingly obliged to plug its use in response to absolutely any question about how to change a feature in the vanilla game. Other popular ones include The Prince and the Thane or the Games of Thrones mod.

Unlike MM, CKII doesn't have ******ed things like Pirates and Framed.
CKII+ is a well designed mod (Wiz the designer got a job at Paradox now because of his modding work), but it does change a lot which some people don't like. It's faction system is quite awesome though. Here's what it says on the mod page.

The purpose of CK2+ is to create a broader, deeper, more challenging and more balanced CK2 experience without straying too far from the original game mechanics or tacking on deterministic railroading events and modifiers. The purpose of this mod is not historical accuracy (although I try to preserve it whenever it is not a major detriment to gameplay) but rather to embrace and enrichen the medieval intrigue sandbox that is CK2, while fixing its various little issues and exploits.

Regarding CK2 I'm more interested into history so which is better, CK2+ or The Prince and the Thane? What are their merits?

I haven't really played The Prince and the Thane, but it looks like it just adds tons and tons of flavor type stuff. Probably better for history.

I like Project Balance, it balances the game without major changes like CKII+ does.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Which CK2 mod is best?

Depends on what you want.

When it comes to CKII, there's what can be considered the three big overhaul mods, each offering something different for the game:

CKII+ adds many new features and improvements to the game, but some people don't like it because it adds too much
Prince and Thane adds in many new ways to roleplay and immerse yourself in the medieval world, but for some it adds in way too much (not to mention it's a bit unbalanced at the moment)
Project Balance tries to stick close to vanilla as possible and improve on the game without changing it, but for some it's too close to vanilla


Besides these big three, there's other major mods out there - each, again, offering something different for everyone.

Friends and Foes is sort of like the roleplay equivalent of CKII+ - it integrates a number of CKII+'s features, but focuses mainly on improving roleplay. From what I know it's more focused on roleplay compared to Prince and Thane, but Prince and Thane has a more historical immersion focus.
Magnate Lords is focused mainly on improving the economy and making it more historically plausible - the premier economy mod.
SWMH is mainly a map mod that tries to make a better map set-up for the game (though that's pretty much it - there's also a SWMH-compatible version of Project Balance, by te way)
Project Synergy is CKII+ and SWMH, basically
VIET - it's my mod . VIET focuses on flavor, immersion, and roleplay, similar to Friends and Foes and Prince and Thane, but it takes a more minimalist approach like Project Balance, meaning it tries to keep things as close to vanilla wherever possible. It's also modular, meaning you can pick and choose (to some extent) what you want and don't want to play with, and it's fully compatible with Project Balance, and has some CKII+ compatible modules.
Lux Invicta - Crazy Alt History
A Game of Thrones - self explanatory
Elder Kings - Elder Scrolls, self explanatory




Tl;dr: Personally I prefer Project Balance, because I'm very much content with vanilla and I don't like adding new features I won't enjoy. Your pick ultimately, though. There are quite a number of options.

 

[Double A]

Lux Invicta - Crazy Alt History

It also makes tech and building advancements take a ridiculous amount of time and blobbing is harder.

Elder Kings is my favorite mod. PB is pretty great too because it doesn't add any unnecessary crap.

 

[KaiserElectric]

Is there any way to install mods besides downloading them from the forums?

 

[Optical]

Depends on what you want.

When it comes to CKII, there's what can be considered the three big overhaul mods, each offering something different for the game:

CKII+ adds many new features and improvements to the game, but some people don't like it because it adds too much
Prince and Thane adds in many new ways to roleplay and immerse yourself in the medieval world, but for some it adds in way too much (not to mention it's a bit unbalanced at the moment)
Project Balance tries to stick close to vanilla as possible and improve on the game without changing it, but for some it's too close to vanilla


Besides these big three, there's other major mods out there - each, again, offering something different for everyone.

Friends and Foes is sort of like the roleplay equivalent of CKII+ - it integrates a number of CKII+'s features, but focuses mainly on improving roleplay. From what I know it's more focused on roleplay compared to Prince and Thane, but Prince and Thane has a more historical immersion focus.
Magnate Lords is focused mainly on improving the economy and making it more historically plausible - the premier economy mod.
SWMH is mainly a map mod that tries to make a better map set-up for the game (though that's pretty much it - there's also a SWMH-compatible version of Project Balance, by te way)
Project Synergy is CKII+ and SWMH, basically
VIET - it's my mod . VIET focuses on flavor, immersion, and roleplay, similar to Friends and Foes and Prince and Thane, but it takes a more minimalist approach like Project Balance, meaning it tries to keep things as close to vanilla wherever possible. It's also modular, meaning you can pick and choose (to some extent) what you want and don't want to play with, and it's fully compatible with Project Balance, and has some CKII+ compatible modules.
Lux Invicta - Crazy Alt History
A Game of Thrones - self explanatory
Elder Kings - Elder Scrolls, self explanatory




Tl;dr: Personally I prefer Project Balance, because I'm very much content with vanilla and I don't like adding new features I won't enjoy. Your pick ultimately, though. There are quite a number of options.

Nice summary.

I personally recommend Project Balance as well - a number of minor mods are compatible with it as well, so you can pick and choose between those too. I personally use PB, VIET Traits (I probably need to update this as it's a 4-month-old version), Dungeons and Sieges, NBRT+ for vanilla map, Mediterranean Portraits Enhanced, Armories ARKO, Missing COAs and Culturally Different Cities. Only the first three are gameplay mods, but the others are worth looking at as well if you want to make your game look nice.

 

[mechaerik]

Nice summary.

I personally recommend Project Balance as well - a number of minor mods are compatible with it as well, so you can pick and choose between those too. I personally use PB, VIET Traits (I probably need to update this as it's a 4-month-old version), Dungeons and Sieges, NBRT+ for vanilla map, Mediterranean Portraits Enhanced, Armories ARKO, Missing COAs and Culturally Different Cities. Only the first three are gameplay mods, but the others are worth looking at as well if you want to make your game look nice.

I definitely second Dungeons and Sieges, Mediterranean Portraits Enhanced (if you have the Med Portraits DLC), Armories ARKO. ARKO is especially nice because some of the new CoA patterns in there are excellent, especially the Muslim ones.

I also recommend Duel Engine, but I think that has been integrated into VIET.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I definitely second Dungeons and Sieges, Mediterranean Portraits Enhanced (if you have the Med Portraits DLC), Armories ARKO. ARKO is especially nice because some of the new CoA patterns in there are excellent, especially the Muslim ones.

I also recommend Duel Engine, but I think that has been integrated into VIET.

I haven't integrated Duel Engine into VIET yet. Though I'm supposed to eventually. Currently though the Duel Engine is a bit buggy because it's creator hasn't been able to work on it for a while.

 

[NBAfan]

Is there any way to install mods besides downloading them from the forums?

No, getting a forum account is easy though.

 

[KaiserElectric]

Last I checked though, it wouldn't let me access the forums, despite having registered my CK2 game there.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Last I checked though, it wouldn't let me access the forums, despite having registered my CK2 game there.

You should bring it up with the forum mods/admins or something, that shouldn't be happening.

 

[mechaerik]

Last I checked though, it wouldn't let me access the forums, despite having registered my CK2 game there.

Have you confirmed your email address?

 

[Double A]

Paradox Plaza is a stupid forum, and we've all had to go through this crap.

 

[Optical]

I've actually never had any problems. As long as you confirm your email you should be fine, in general.

 

[NBAfan]

Paradox Plaza is a stupid forum, and we've all had to go through this crap.

Yeah, it can be pretty slow at times. It's nice though, the devs are very active on it.