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

 

[monsterfurby]

As for the marriage thing - Pryderi pointed out one particular case of an explicit matrilinieal marriage here.

 

[unmerged(766678)]

Well people can use the title name changer however they want, but I think the most useful way to use it is for example if you want to make the Empire of Germany rather than the Holy Roman Empire. If you are king of England and manage to get your hands on wales maybe make a single Duke of Wales by editing the name of one of the duchies, same for Ireland. You could try to get your hands on the kingdom of Hungary as duke of Austria and rename it to the Kingdom of Austria. There are tons of applications far beyond just giving your realms random weird names. It's just a shame you can't edit the color on the map.

Pretty much this. I honestly don't get the same aesthetic euphoria from being an "emperor" as I get from being a "king" idk why. But if I am a king and I am expanding my realm, I'd like to be able to rename one particular duchy in a kingdom to the "duchy of that kingdom" so I can essentially have a king (although they are duke status) be my vassal. I think it's actually a great idea. I'd like to create the Duke of Ireland and vassalize him as the King of England.

 

[Lord Flash]

Patch 1.11:
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.

Not sure I like this. There should be an element of risk involved when attempting to bribe someone. Currently that risk is that you may lose your money. With this new addition, even that risk is taken away.

I'd much prefer a bribery element which involves other risks, such as a malus to vassal opinions if the 'bribee' rejects your bribe - "Attempted bribery in murder plot. -5"

I'd also like to be able to 'lure' people into my court with 'promises'.

- I promise to give you a title if you come to my court.
- I promise to give you 50 Gold if you come to my court.
- I promise to fulfil your ambition of marriage if you come to my court.

For each month that passes in which I have not fulfilled my promise, I get a 'promise-breaker' malus of -1 (per month) with my vassals.

Potential plotters could be tempted to back a plot using promises or bribes.

 

[Kljunas]

Not sure I like this. There should be an element of risk involved when attempting to bribe someone. Currently that risk is that you may lose your money. With this new addition, even that risk is taken away.

I'd much prefer a bribery element which involves other risks, such as a malus to vassal opinions if the 'bribee' rejects your bribe - "Attempted bribery in murder plot. -5"

I'd also like to be able to 'lure' people into my court with 'promises'.

- I promise to give you a title if you come to my court.
- I promise to give you 50 Gold if you come to my court.
- I promise to fulfil your ambition of marriage if you come to my court.

For each month that passes in which I have not fulfilled my promise, I get a 'promise-breaker' malus of -1 (per month) with my vassals.

Potential plotters could be tempted to back a plot using promises or bribes.

There's no risk, you can just do the math before sending your gift.

 

[unmerged(766678)]

Not sure I like this. There should be an element of risk involved when attempting to bribe someone. Currently that risk is that you may lose your money. With this new addition, even that risk is taken away.

I'd much prefer a bribery element which involves other risks, such as a malus to vassal opinions if the 'bribee' rejects your bribe - "Attempted bribery in murder plot. -5"

I'd also like to be able to 'lure' people into my court with 'promises'.

- I promise to give you a title if you come to my court.
- I promise to give you 50 Gold if you come to my court.
- I promise to fulfil your ambition of marriage if you come to my court.

For each month that passes in which I have not fulfilled my promise, I get a 'promise-breaker' malus of -1 (per month) with my vassals.

Potential plotters could be tempted to back a plot using promises or bribes.

I'd actually like if the inter-kingdom politics were spruced up a little bit. More cause and effects. Affairs leading to wars and improper inheritance. I feel like the intrigue mechanic is kind of one dimensional. Eventually someone will want to kill someone, you end or don't end the plot. Someone will want to fabricate a claim, you end or don't end the plot. Someone will want independence, you bribe them until they end their faction. Feudal politics was obviously a huge aspect to history and a good attempt has been made in this game. But I just wish the intrigue mechanics were a little more dynamic. Longer chains of events. Different types of political scheming. Not really sure how to go about this, just kind of spewing off at the fingers.

 

[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.

 

[Lord Flash]

All sorts of products are made and sold

You're a victim of your own success. Paradox products are good...Paradox don't churn out shite products. Therefore we must buy the product regardless...

...but wait...

It's shite.

"Once upon a time Paradox products were good. What the hell were Paradox thinking?!?!"

 

[antigravitycat]

Finally a user/gamer-friendly way to keep the plotter terror at bay... good news!

 

[DominusNovus]

Do you ever go into stores and shout "PEPSI?!? HA! I only drink coke, what the hell is <storename> thinking?!?!"

Yes, but I work in the beverage industry, so I just want to kick Pepsi and Coke out of the store entirely, and take up all their space.

PS, it would be nice to be able to tweak which plots you want to auto-squash. Killing some random courtier? Go for it. Supporting a new ruler for one of the duchies of my vassal Republics? Squash! Forging a claim that will seriously mess up my internal borders? Squash.

 

[ightenhill]

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.

Thats not a very good analogy.. The Pepsi part of your analogy has nothing to do with he situation.. Its more like Coke added yet another E number to the mix Do you prefer the old coke or want to try the new taste but pay and take the risk

 

[ImperatorLJ]

I don't get these knee jerk reactions about this DLC. A company does one thing you kinda don't like, and your first assumption is that the company is going to hell, and is about to start destroying everything you hold dear. It is really ridiculous to jump to those conclusions.

 

[Rozmarzony]

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.

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.

 

[Sol Dram]

Wow thank you thank you!!!! Plotting is no longer going to be a chore.

 

[edwardianed]

Definitely out of era, but it appears Queen Elizabeth II of the UK matrilinearly married Philip of Greece since the acknowledged family name for the British Royals is "Windsor" not Mountbatten.

Well, actually it's much more complicated than that. The Queen retains her personal name of Windsor, whilst the Duke of Edinburgh retains his personal name of Mountbatten (after renouncing all titles he may have held under House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg) and an Order in Council makes it so all non-royal descendants of the two take name the name Mountbatten-Windsor, whilst royal descendants would take the name Windsor; however in practice all four of their children have taken the name Mountbatten-Windsor. In fact it is a curious situation that none of the Queen's direct descendants have the name Windsor, the only Windsors in the Royal Family are the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and Princess Alexandra.

 

[tman144]

I like this ruler customizer idea, but I feel as if it should be folded into the ruler designer DLC I already have. It feels like I'm having to buy the same DLC twice. If I had the choice right now, I would take the new DLC and not the old one. I don't really see anything I could have done with the old DLC that I can't do with the new DLC, and the new DLC lets me do it whenever I want.

 

[Cymsdale]

should thanks him for that, because by that action he is showing what customers want.

According to forums, customers don't want Steam version of CK2. According to actual sales, a very different story.

 

[unmerged(490475)]

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.

I'm so happy to see a developer finally tell someone this!

 

[Rozmarzony]

According to forums, customers don't want Steam version of CK2. According to actual sales, a very different story.

From most threads touching steam topic I assumed that people actually prefer steam version over gamersgate. Huh.

 

[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.

 

[Rozmarzony]

I said that you should listen to every fan with negative approach?
But if they're more and more when it comes to specific situations, this mean something. (best example - Sunset Invasion)

A lot of people would be more happy (i'm not saying majority) if you instead of releasing next DLC would fix gamebreaking bugs and broken mechanics.