Crusader Kings II - Patch 1.11 and Customizer - Dev Diary

[Goosecreature]

Things are getting busy at the office with the upcoming release of Europa Universalis IV, but as has been said before, we're still very much committed to the continued support and further expansion of Crusader Kings II. With Doomdark currently Down Under, Johan asked me to put together a short dev diary highlighting some of the current stuff we've been working on.

Patch 1.11:
1.11 will be deployed next week, and the new patch will include a few features that should make dealing with plots a bit easier. After hatching a plot, you can now tell the game to automatically invite all plotters who are willing to join your scheme. No more having to browse through the Potential Plotters list and individually sending requests to every single character who wants to join!

Also, you can now set the game to always demand that characters end their plots as soon as they come to your attention. Another handy addition is that you can now see at a glance which potential plotters can be won over to your side if they are bribed.

Among the other things added is a new Siege Leader trait (finally), a favorite IP table for the multiplayer menu and some additional support for modders.

Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV Converter:
Johan already posted a dev diary about the Converter last week in the Europa Universalis IV forum, and there is an interview with Groogy here that goes into some more detail. I don't have much to add except that we're pretty pleased with the result and it actually works better than we had anticipated when development began.

Customizer:
This is a smaller DLC on the scale of the Ruler Designer, but it's something that many have asked for. It will give players an easy way to customize several items in their games when they are already well underway.

You can have your character pay a visit to the barber, where their hairstyle or facial hair can be altered... within reason (no bearded women, sorry). Below you can see the new look I gave King Charles II the Not-So-Bald:

View attachment CKII_111_DD_The_Bald.jpg

You can rename any title held by you or your vassals:

View attachment CKII_111_DD_Northwest_Francia.jpg

Finally, if you feel the need to shake things up a bit, you can alter the name and shield of your dynasty:

View attachment CKII_111_DD_de_Poher.jpg

Hopefully this will tide you over for a while, until we're ready to tell you more about what the future will bring to Crusader Kings II.


Here are the highlights from the Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV Converter livestream with Johan & Doomdark!
[video=youtube;FWqQgp1Vh9U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWqQgp1Vh9U[/video]

You can find the full live-stream for the CK2 to EU4 converter here:
http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/b/438261345

ps. And you can pre-order Europa Universalis IV here:
http://www.europauniversalis4.com/buy

 

[Goosecreature]

What about recolloring? Can I finally make my gray HRE the orange Dutch Empire?

You can't change the map color through the Customizer, sorry.

 

[Goosecreature]

Ha! Nice one.

Is there a randomizing option when naming a child too?

No, sorry.

 

[Goosecreature]

Goose, when can we get a change log? Early next week?

Yes, that would be my bet.

 

[Goosecreature]

Will we be able to change the title's COA and colour too or is it limited to the name?

In the case of titles, it's just the name.

 

[Groogy]

I'm guessing that save games won't carry over to this?

Save games should work, but since it is a major change I won't make it a promise.

 

[Goosecreature]

How much will you charge for the customizer?

I can't tell you what the exact cost will be, as I don't know yet myself. It's still being determined.

 

[Goosecreature]

If you change your dynasty name and coa, does it change for your whole dynasty or do you create a new branch?

It changes for your whole dynasty.

 

[Groogy]

But will it work in multiplayer tho?

The customization DLC will work for MP as well, yes.

So if you want to name yourself "Kingdom of Fairies" to joke with your friends, that is entirely possible

 

[Goosecreature]

The customization DLC will work for MP as well, yes.

So if you want to name yourself "Kingdom of Fairies" to joke with your friends, that is entirely possible

But not necessarily historically correct.

 

[Darkrenown]

You're right about everything, BUT it would be ok, if they would give something for free, not in DLC.

Have you seen the patchnotes for CK2? Tons of new stuff is added for free, and we can do that because CK2 is being funded by the DLCs.

 

[Darkrenown]

That's what im saying, if people like me wouldn't buy those DLC, small % of people who are not buying DLC will get small part of it.
Comfortable policy I would say, because now you can tell everyone how you are giving some free stuff, getting at same time a LOT of cash for pretty simple DLC. (As I said, modders are capable of creating more/better stuff with less people and for free)

If you think free mods are much better than our DLCs then go ahead and play them, everyone wins.

 

[Darkrenown]

It's not. It just allows you to change your beard and hair ingame. Amazing...

Decision tree:

Would I like to customise my ruler's look/title names ingame?
Yes> Think about buying DLC.
No> Ignore it.

Do you ever go into stores and shout "PEPSI?!? HA! I only drink coke, what the hell is <storename> thinking?!?!" ? All sorts of products are made and sold, there's no requirement that you buy them all. Just get what you need/want/like and don't get worked up that other people like different things.

 

[Darkrenown]

It's a forum, place for posting your opinions... if someone thinks that DLC sucks, he have right to complain about it.
Well, even more, developers (like you) should thanks him for that, because by that action he is showing what customers want.

Not really. If you want to say you won't buy it, sure, go ahead I guess, but making multiple posts about how terrible the DLC is, how terrible we are, how this is the downfall of civilisation as we know it... It's just ragespam. Vote with your wallet, if you don't like it, don't buy it, and if this type of DLC flops we won't do more. As it is though, CK2 DLCs sell like hotcakes because lots and lots of our fans like them. People complain about each and every one, so if we listened to the few angry forum people we'd never do anything.

 

[Darkrenown]

But if they're more and more when it comes to specific situations, this mean something. (best example - Sunset Invasion)

SI is a great example, if you listen to some people here it literally killed their dog, but it sold well and has been widely praised for being a funny fantasy scenario. We even put special stuff in the CK2/EUIV converter for the new world when you have SI enabled, which we wouldn't bother with if it had been a flop that no one uses.

You personally disliking something doesn't mean everyone does, it doesn't even mean it's unpopular. When said disliked thing is an entirely optional purchase it's probably best just to ignore it and let the market decide if it's disliked by the majority or not.

 

[Darkrenown]

Man, they didn't fixed granting independence to republic or giving republic vassasl to another vassals.
It's completely easy to fix and pretty much gamebreaking in a lot of situation, but again, instead of fixing this for example (and there are more bugs like this) they relesaing new sims-like dlc.

I never said that I dont like SI personally, but if a lot of people don't like it, it would be better to create DLC, which will makes happy EVERYONE.
And sale argument is bad example. No matter what DLC you will release, it will sell well taking into account how small problem for you company is creating such DLC.

Certainly every DLC in terms of profitability, was profitable.

And yet if we didn't sell DLCs we'd have stopped patching CK2 long ago. You act as if we patch nothing at all, which is plain false as every cycle of DLC comes with a patch.

What DLC would please everyone?

Why is sales a bad argument, do people buy things they hate just because?

What exactly is gamebreaking about releasing republics? How do you know it would be an easy fix? What do you this this on?

 

[Darkrenown]

DLC, which would be supported after release of it, instead of throwing it into dark corner and never touching it again.
As I said, decadence, other pagan religions than Norse etc.

But we do patch DLC stuff, I don't know why you keep saying that. Decandence works and there are other pagan religions than norse, so again I don't know what you want here.

Most people dont care about a few bucks and will give it away just for supporting company.
And I'm one of them.
But it isn't reason to abuse it.

What evidence do you have that most people just throw money at us and don't care for our DLCs? You even just said you liked SI! If you really just buy stuff that you hate, don't complain to us about it: Exercise some willpower and stop. Control yourself and buy only what you actually want, you'll be happier.

For example, such republic could start major rebellion, what couldn't be avoided by granting independence.
And if you want "more" gamebreaking stuff, I could say about Byz sucession, when sometimes after death of the ruler ALL vassals of emperor are set independent (yes, even the mayors/bishops one what ends in emperor having ZERO vassals in vassal tab).

Some rebels is hardly gamebreaking, I'll grant it could be somewhat annoying though. And just "Byz succession" tells me nothing, but I did just play through a long BYZ game over my summer holiday without ever having all my vassals become independent, so I assume it is not a common thing. Is there a bug report on it? If so, can you link me?

Why even argue the point anymore?

I don't even know, I really don't.

 

[Darkrenown]

Just look at posts around there, whetever DLC is great, or average, a lot of people are writing that they're not interested, but still would buy for only supporting. And it's great.
But seems like you dont see a problem. Even if I like some DLC less than the other, I will buy it, no matter if it will be expand gameplay or only graphics things.
My point is, that developer shouldn't abuse it, people like me who want to support company even if they're not great at everytihng. Why you're keep answering for that sentence "if you dont like it, dont buy it?" It isn't solution for entire abuse thing. ;p

There's no abuse. We make stuff, you buy it if you want it. If you feel compelled to buy everything even though you don't want it, that is your problem. If you can't see that I have no idea what to say to you.

Some people writing on the forum that they aren't interested isn't interesting. They are certainly not the majority of the forum, and the majority of our users never use the forum. What a few people here say is a terrible metric (Hello GG version of CK2 ). And the idea that most people just throw money at us despite not wanting our DLCs is madness. Although if it were true it would be a very strong case for us not to worry about making quality DLCs or patching anything at all, since if people just buy everything regardless why put any effort in?

No, decadence isn't working. It's just spawning some magic army from deserts, what ends only in specific state changing it name. Nothing more. If for you it's fine... then well... not for most of people. Just look at forum, how many threads about decadence was created in recent months.

This is you not liking decadence, not decadence not working.

I will point Doomdark at the vassal thing when he is back from Oz, thanks for the links.

With that, I'm going to stop replying here.

 

[Groogy]

Besides making plot management easier we also added so fleets are easier to choose when heading out to battle. You can press ALT to select exclusively fleets now. Hopefully it should make your lives a bit easier

 

[Groogy]

Erm....not sure what you mean.
If I select a fleet and then drag a frame over the map I will only select fleets.
Is this the same thing without having to click twice?
If so: yeah!

Yes now you can do it without having to select a fleet first. Just hold in ALT.
I know from playing MP with some guys here on the forum, it was an annoyance when going out raiding Player France
Anything that makes that easier is worth adding into the game.