I am now obessed with Crusader Kings II.

[Mouthwash]

It's all I can think about. I can't read or talk to people or relax in any way. The only thing I can think about is what my next few moves will be, how to manage my vassal republic in Finland, how should I go about pruning my offspring and creating "dynastic colonies," what sort of tweaks would remove the worst stupidities of design, etc. I even think about it academically: I find myself looking for people not of my religion in the realm because they are usually former revolters or have talents to some impressive degree which has enabled them to remain in power. It's an entire sociology waiting to be explored.

Unfortunately the past two days I've only been out of my room to use the bathroom and eat. Took a shower a few hours ago.

This might actually be a natural response to a game like this. If our distant descendants build ancestor simulations they will look back on CKII as the earliest incarnation of them. It's so deep and so dynamic it rivals real life. If I spent the rest of my life exploring it, if I wrote books on it and competed professionally in it, I would be absolutely satisfied with that. That's how it feels right at this moment.

I made this thread to ask for help.

So...

 

[Old Hippy]

get a dog(if you don't have one) and go play frisbie for a while, you will find playing CKII more productive while fresh...

 

[Arakhor]

So, you've now reached your natural equilibrium in life and want help moving on? Tyranny!

 

[gay_Aleks]

Welcome to the club?

 

[Kyriakos]

I wanted to like CK, but the Byzantine Empire is already the strongest in the game, so it is boring. First Eastern Roman issues.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I absolutely love the game. I always tried to start with the smallest kingdom, even as a simple duke, in order to get the most of the game, going from the bottom to the top and all that. Problem was i am not that good at it and my rulers never achieved anything. Maybe i am contaminated by a civilizationesque childhood or i have become too busy to learn it well and the game is too complex, dont know.

 

[Arakhor]

Heaven forbid you play someone else, Kyriakos. I'd have thought you'd like spreading (say) Greek culture across the map in somewhere other than the Land of Sun and Stone.

 

[Borachio]

Yeah. Well. Addiction.

It is what it is.

 

[warpus]

Whenever I've played as the Polish king, my sons always end up fighting over the country and starting a civil war when I die.

I'm supposed to change the type of government to something else as soon as I start.. or something like that.. to prevent all that. Can someone remind me what exactly I need to change?

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Unfortunately the past two days I've only been out of my room to use the bathroom and eat. Took a shower a few hours ago.
It's so deep and so dynamic it rivals real life. If I spent the rest of my life exploring it, if I wrote books on it and competed professionally in it, I would be absolutely satisfied with that. That's how it feels right at this moment.

I made this thread to ask for help.

So...

Yeah right... I feel like saying: you know nothing about real life then. But I am sort of in the same club so... Its probably well thought through game and very well designed which appeals to some strong and lively part within you and lightens the fire of passion in you. Remember its you and your propensities who gives life to this game (which for other may have zero atraction) since you allow yourself to see in its design some reality worthy of believing in. When the passion runs out, which it eventually must, you will turn away from it with disgust or laugh at its pettiness but meanwhile enjoy the party and the thrill, I will do the same... Cheers

 

[Kyriakos]

Heaven forbid you play someone else, Kyriakos. I'd have thought you'd like spreading (say) Greek culture across the map in somewhere other than the Land of Sun and Stone.

All the others are just nations. Byzantine is a player

Spoiler :

roughly 80% of the byz emperors were Baelish prototypes. The rest are split among the Clegane's, by and large, with a few more degenerate still).

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Whenever I've played as the Polish king, my sons always end up fighting over the country and starting a civil war when I die.

I'm supposed to change the type of government to something else as soon as I start.. or something like that.. to prevent all that. Can someone remind me what exactly I need to change?

It may be designed to copy the historical line more often then not....

 

[Manfred Belheim]

I wanted to get into, it looked really interesting. I remember playing the demo about a year ago, but just finding it bewilderingly complicated so never took it further. Recently I thought I'd like to give it another go so I started watching a Let's Play on youtube because I thought that would be a good way to just absorb the essence of what you actually do in the game and learn it through osmosis. But having watched the first 6 half hour videos in the series all I've seen is the guy just hold a feast, a hunt and a summer fair, year after year with the same "random event" pop-ups for each one time after time after time, while pretty much nothing else happens. He finally went to war in the last video - he was playing as Scotland and England was a total mess after being involved in myriad civil wars since the start of the game. He could have conquered the whole place but instead he accepted a peace treaty after only getting 3 territories and the treaty only actually gave him one of those.

Maybe there are some feudal rules about what you're allowed to claim as your own and what you aren't. Maybe he couldn't have conquered the whole of England without a recognised claim, I don't know. But it just seems like a very repetitive game where not much of anything happens most of the time. Apart from a monkey constantly attacking his owner in the summer fair or whatever.

 

[Gucumatz]

I haven't been able to really get into CKII. I bought it back in a steam sale a while back ago and have only played like 2 games, one where I started as the Jewish Khazars and managed to conquer most of Russia. I then played a 2nd game as Salerno and ended up inheriting France, Italy, Spain, Bohemia, Taurica, etc. in that game, while also seating dynastic members on the English crown, Armenian, and Ethiopian. It felt a bit too easy to assasinate and take what you wanted through marriages that way. Maybe just haven't played with a fun enough start. Which nation did you start with mouthwash?

Personally I find EU4 the more fun of the paradox games. Some people here are big fans of Victoria 2 here, haven't played that though

 

[Joecoolyo]

It's all I can think about. I can't read or talk to people or relax in any way. The only thing I can think about is what my next few moves will be, how to manage my vassal republic in Finland, how should I go about pruning my offspring and creating "dynastic colonies," what sort of tweaks would remove the worst stupidities of design, etc. I even think about it academically: I find myself looking for people not of my religion in the realm because they are usually former revolters or have talents to some impressive degree which has enabled them to remain in power. It's an entire sociology waiting to be explored.

Unfortunately the past two days I've only been out of my room to use the bathroom and eat. Took a shower a few hours ago.

This might actually be a natural response to a game like this. If our distant descendants build ancestor simulations they will look back on CKII as the earliest incarnation of them. It's so deep and so dynamic it rivals real life. If I spent the rest of my life exploring it, if I wrote books on it and competed professionally in it, I would be absolutely satisfied with that. That's how it feels right at this moment.

I made this thread to ask for help.

So...

It's just the honeymoon phase, no worries. Soon the mystique will wear off, you'll get bored, and move onto the next game. Took me about 200-300 hours to do.

Enjoy it while it lasts though! And make sure to take note of some of the great stories that develop. If CKII is good at anything, it's being a story generator.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I think CKII is a lot funner for many people if you just sit back and relax, roleplay, and make up stories inside your head. CKII players o guess are divided into two camps, those who focus on the "strategy" aspect and tend to min max and see it as a game of conquest; and those who focus on the roleplay, and like dicking around and achieving smaller goals for the lulz. If you take it too seriously as a risk-esque game of conquest, i think you'll lose sight of what makes it unique, the characters and personal stories, which you have to put a bit of effort into liking.

This is why I enjoy CKII. EU is too much of a glorified Risk for me, so it is boring for me as I really can't do straight up conquest games anymore. I'm not interested in HOI's time period, and Vicky is 2deep4me. In CKII, I can live my fantasies as a loyal Byzantine citizen, get pissed off at inexistent 2-D characters screwing with my plans, or bone my sister.

Anyways, I think I've put in probably at least a thousand hours into ckii, if you count modding.

I do wish I could relive the first couple games I had.especially that one as the kingdom of ireland. That was magical.





Alright, but really, yall know the real reason why I like CKII is the incest, right?

 

[warpus]

It may be designed to copy the historical line more often then not....

That's exactly why it happens, but I want to change the part of my government or whatever needs changing so that I can change history and lead Poland into space (while killing and doing other nasty things to relatives along the way)

 

[Joecoolyo]

I do wish I could relive the first couple games I had.especially that one as the kingdom of ireland. That was magical.

I think everyone has that one Kingdom of Ireland story. That was also my first game, and I have such fond memories. Being invaded by both the Kingdom of England and the HRE at the same time. That one mercenary revolt that I had to put down with more mercenaries. Having to deal with hereditary title of the Kingdom of Ireland and the elective title of Kingdom of Scotland on the same character. Creating a dungeon collection of my favorite Scottish lords so they wouldn't vote wrong. Ah, the memories!

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

That's exactly why it happens, but I want to change the part of my government or whatever needs changing so that I can change history and lead Poland into space (while killing and doing other nasty things to relatives along the way)

All the best then - its good challange. Just make sure you treat Bohemia nicely...

 

[cybrxkhan]

I think everyone has that one Kingdom of Ireland story. That was also my first game, and I have such fond memories. Being invaded by both the Kingdom of England and the HRE at the same time. That one mercenary revolt that I had to put down with more mercenaries. Having to deal with hereditary title of the Kingdom of Ireland and the elective title of Kingdom of Scotland on the same character. Creating a dungeon collection of my favorite Scottish lords so they wouldn't vote wrong. Ah, the memories!

In my Ireland game I had a king die early leaving behind a child who was, however, an uber-awesome genius. So one of the king's old cousins basically becomes the evil chancellor/vizier/regent and starts a war to lower crown authority, and succeeds, because he's evil™. So... the genius kid spends his entire childhood waiting the shadows, plotting his revenge, etc. etc. etc., and when he comes of age a new civil war breaks out, genius young king wins, evil chancellor imprisoned and dies, everybody lives happily after. And then this new genius, kind, just, awesome, great king dies of young age from depression, leaving behind another genius child king and a whole set of troubles.

That was fun.

Of course, this was all before I discovered how to have sibling incest via console command cheats.