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CK2 Dev Diary #61: The Dragon Throne

Hello folks!

The Swedish summer vacations are drawing to a close and I’m back and eager to talk some more Crusader Kings! What better way to kick off the end of summer than by revealing the theme of the next expansion? Yes my friends, it’s China! Now, before you get all emotional one way or the other, we’re not actually going to expand the map farther east. We considered doing that, long and hard, but eventually decided on a different approach that would not strain performance and stability beyond reason. As I mentioned in Dev Diary #51, it bothers me that the eastern edge of the map just cuts off in such an unnatural way. Playing in the Orient, you should always feel like you’re in the shadow of the Dragon. It should be an interesting and dynamic region right in the center of the Old World. So, we came up with the idea of adding China as a political entity even though you cannot actually see most of its territory.

The Dragon Throne.png


There is a new screen you can open up, which, if you’re within range of China, allows you to interact with the Emperor in various interesting ways. China can grant many wonderful boons if you’re in the emperor’s good graces, but, depending on the current status and policy of the Dragon Throne, the emperor can also decide you’d better show some respect and become a tributary state. When there is turmoil in China, displaced or fleeing armies can arrive on the map and cause all kinds of trouble. China can even seize and rule actual provinces, but the emperor leaves the governing of such areas to the Governor of the Western Protectorate (or, to be a stickler, the “Protectorate General to Pacify the West”.) Potentially, this on-map part of China can grow enormously powerful, but you should not have to worry too much as long as you enjoy the emperor’s grace…

That’s going to be all for now. I’m sure you have a million questions, but you’ll have to wait for the upcoming dev diaries. :)

Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our CK2 livestreams between 16 to 18:00 CET!
 
I know the game you mean (although not by any reference to China I was always taught it as a generic "he likes" but that might just be a cultural thing) and the mechanic was not made with that game in mind.
If you say so. Still seems like much of a coincidence to me.
 
If you say so. Still seems like much of a coincidence to me.
It is a coincidence, that game has no reference to the Emperor of China in any country I have seen it played in and nobody else on the team had heard of it by that name either.
 
G.Projector is nice if you don't have access to a UI-based GIS tool like ArcGIS or GlobalMapper. For doing simple rotations and cropping to a preferred size you can also use Hugin, which can lead to results like this, showing the entire target area of the "Old World" if there ever is a movement to accurate projections.

QDrucO3.jpg
gotta check them out, thanks. haven't used any of these.
 
It is a coincidence, that game has no reference to the Emperor of China in any country I have seen it played in and nobody else on the team had heard of it by that name either.
It's a very common Swedish children's game. You know that country you are based in.

But hey whatever it's not really relevant.
 
Not everyone that works at Paradox is Swedish...
Well aware of it. But there are those who are too.
But look if you say it's not a reference I'll accept that, there's no point in having a discussion about it.
 
Why not? It's an archipelago roughly the size of British Isles.
And roughly of the same importance to the greater scheme of things. Both are island countries who really don't do much of note in this era.
 
Without Japan, without me. Seems like another DLC to skip on. I just want my map with everything from Europe to Japan. Is it that hard?!

It's pretty hard, yeah. I conquered the world by 1130 and now (1405) even at 5 speed I am doing about 2 days per second.

If you have ever played in 5 speed, that is exceedingly slow.

China is a massive region, so unless they want to find stricter ways to cull courtiers and other potential interactions (aka calculations) I feel adding China would only be detrimental to game speed.
 
It's pretty hard, yeah. I conquered the world by 1130 and now (1405) even at 5 speed I am doing about 2 days per second.

If you have ever played in 5 speed, that is exceedingly slow.

China is a massive region, so unless they want to find stricter ways to cull courtiers and other potential interactions (aka calculations) I feel adding China would only be detrimental to game speed.
What's the point of playing after you conquered the world?