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CK2 Dev Diary #79 - Beautifying the Baltics

Greetings!

Work is progressing splendidly on the upcoming expansion, alas it is still much too early to start talking about any of its many features. Instead, we’ll continue our tour of the cartographer's office.

As I mentioned in the last Dev Diary we’re working our way through some of the more neglected areas of the map - primarily (but not exclusively) focusing our efforts on areas that weren’t that interesting to play in. This time around we’re teasing the upcoming changes to the Baltics, primarily based on tribes that populated the region before the Northern Crusades, again courtesy of [Arthur-PDX]. This time I thought of providing you with a side-by-side comparison, so you can see the changes for yourselves, without having to boot up the game:
Baltics Update.png


Code:
- Map Update to the Baltics
       - Major overhaul to the Baltic region (mostly encompassing the Kingdom of Lithuania's DeJure territory)
      - (Major) river Daugava moved and reshaped a bit for more accuracy
       - Minor river crossings in Lithuania reshaped for more accuracy
      - 7 provinces added to enhance pre-Livonian Order flavour
       - New duchy of Latgale added
      - All old provinces in the DeJure Lithuanian Kingdom's territory have been reshaped for more historical & cultural accuracy
      - New kingdom of Estonia, formable by holding the duchies of Estonia and the new duchy of Kalava

Please note that the time between Dev Diaries will be irregular, as we’re very early in the development cycle.
 
Too bad you miscalled the next one :D
Whaaaaat?

You're at least just talking about the order in which you'll reveal stuff, right? ^^; We may still get Africa map rework in a next DD, right? ^^;
 
Too bad you miscalled the next one :D
Please tell me I at least got the order wrong???
Other than that I guess we might also get a rework in Novgorod? Since we are near that region rn...

If I were to speculate I guess the next few ones are Germany/HRE, Crimea or maybe the Balkans?
 
@elvain how do you feel about making the Nile a major river from roughly Cairo to one of the Cataracts? Technically it'd be unsailable unless it was its own ocean tile which is unfortunate but at least it could give some major river crossing maluses and be more inline with other major rivers.

I kind of wish you could raise boat levies and build trade posts along major rivers but I suppose it would break the river fortification mechanic and cause other troubles. Maybe it could even have a special mechanic that speeds up troop movement between adjacent counties touching the Nile but not across it to represent the use of boats for speedy transportation in the region.
I'm not sure how is my feeling relevant here. However, if you ask...

I'm not sure, to be honest. I agree with you that it would be nice to have trade posts and possibility to raise ship levies along the Nile (and use the river to transport armies in Egypt) as well as to make it harder for armies to cross it...
On the other hand, from 'map painter' perspective I can't ignore the fact that Nile did not divide Egypt in two parts, but was unifying factor. Most of medieval Egyptian provinces lied on both banks of the river and I personaly would prefer if Egypt would have little different shape - to have provinces only in the Nile valley and with the desert being a desert. If there would be major river running in between, it would look quite weird.
 
Plz. Add kasogs on Caucasus. And I very want battle events for my characters, when they lead army. Events like "choose field for battle" , "crosse the river" , "make camp for night", "night attack" and etc.
 
Sorry for late reply but why do you correct me on this, you saw and commented on my thread where i compared population to holdings, you were also the only person to disagree with the calculations. I didn't bother saying holdings because IMO it's a pretty safe bet that when more provinces are added there's going to be more holdings. As for EU4 development that is also what i compared to population in my reply to Arthur, and tech is an example i used to defend your point about Scandinavian holdings.
I'm sorry without the context of that discussion I cannot say why i disagreed. Though sometimes if no one else disagrees with something I play the devil's advocate.
 
@elvain how do you feel about making the Nile a major river from roughly Cairo to one of the Cataracts? Technically it'd be unsailable unless it was its own ocean tile which is unfortunate but at least it could give some major river crossing maluses and be more inline with other major rivers.

I kind of wish you could raise boat levies and build trade posts along major rivers but I suppose it would break the river fortification mechanic and cause other troubles. Maybe it could even have a special mechanic that speeds up troop movement between adjacent counties touching the Nile but not across it to represent the use of boats for speedy transportation in the region.
The Nile should easily be a major river. But that should come at the same time as rivers become navigable by everyone and you can build ports and tradeposts and have merchant republics along them. This stuff is required for the rivers of west africa I mentioned earlier too.

I'm not sure how is my feeling relevant here. However, if you ask...

I'm not sure, to be honest. I agree with you that it would be nice to have trade posts and possibility to raise ship levies along the Nile (and use the river to transport armies in Egypt) as well as to make it harder for armies to cross it...
On the other hand, from 'map painter' perspective I can't ignore the fact that Nile did not divide Egypt in two parts, but was unifying factor. Most of medieval Egyptian provinces lied on both banks of the river and I personaly would prefer if Egypt would have little different shape - to have provinces only in the Nile valley and with the desert being a desert. If there would be major river running in between, it would look quite weird.
The primary task of the province as I said earlier is to add strategic depth. The Nile is stupidly wide, trying to get an army across is a major undertaking. And all rivers in this era are both unifying and dividing factors, very hard to cross, the game in fact underplays this, it's one of the things the total war games do better, by only allowing crossing at certain places, but also the highways to transport goods and troops on.

Also major rivers add character to a region. Makes it look more like a place and less like a blob of provinces.
 
Please tell me I at least got the order wrong???
Other than that I guess we might also get a rework in Novgorod? Since we are near that region rn...

If I were to speculate I guess the next few ones are Germany/HRE, Crimea or maybe the Balkans?

Nah, if I started answering too many questions, it would be too easy to start finding stuff out, and that isn't fun for anyone :eek:
 
Nah, if I started answering too many questions, it would be too easy to start finding stuff out, and that isn't fun for anyone :eek:

True enough...but if you guys are doing any updates to North Africa...you should probs take into consideration implementing a
Maghreb Culture Group hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge. ;)

Just saying though...we ain't talking about anything official at all.....
 
True enough...but if you guys are doing any updates to North Africa...you should probs take into consideration implementing a
Maghreb Culture Group hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge. ;)

Just saying though...we ain't talking about anything official at all.....
Sorry to say that, but that suggestion makes no sense in the CK2 time period. Back then there was no Moroccan, Algerian nor Tunisian cultures nor identities in the region..
During the CK2 era the major groups in the region were the Sanhaja, Zanata and Masmuda Berber tribal confederations, who shaped the fate of the region... and since mid 11th century Hillalian Arabs, who were in fact Bedouin arabs by CK2 cultural divisions...

Only after Hillalian expansion substantial Arabization have started, but still the Arab-Berber antagonism as well as hostilities among Berber confederations were essential, not some early modern identities which started to be shaped after 14th centuries and became real only after Ottoman occupation of Tunisia and spread of their influence into modern day Algeria in late 15th and 16th century.

As for more accurate division of kingdoms... there could be kingdons of Maghreb, Africa/Ifriqiya and perhaps Mauretania in the far west... but it all depends on the level of detail... if there would be any map overhaul of the region. You can just check my map mod in my signature. Unfortunately I don't have time to maintain it anymore, but it can serve as good inspiration...
 
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One more thing. If you start early and you land lowborns they often start historical Dynasties. The Wittelsbacher, the Bourbons etc. But for some reason the Habsburgs are locked. Can you unlock them please so I can form a germanic HRE in the 769 start get the Habsburgs in Austria.
But why? Count Radbot of Klettgau built Habsburg Castle in the 1020s. The dynasty literally didn't exist before that.
 
But why? Count Radbot of Klettgau built Habsburg Castle in the 1020s. The dynasty literally didn't exist before that.

Why not? The same applies to some other historical dynasties, which aren’t locked in a similar way.
Moreover they did exist before that, they just started to call themselves after said castle. Not that unique, the house of Wittelsbach were counts of Scheyern before moving to Wittelsbach castle.
As for the Habsburgs they were direct (or indirect) descendants of the Etichonen.
 
About when-ish will the DD's start to be weekly again? And will these first DD's before diving in the main subject/features be entirely centered on polishing the map or will there be prehaps some QoL centered DD's?
 
Nah, if I started answering too many questions, it would be too easy to start finding stuff out, and that isn't fun for anyone :eek:
Not spoiling it, but you made me highly suspicious that it will be the HRE. And that is really necessary, for all the river weirdness is giving me headaches.

PS: Why can't I use proper <b>HTML</b> tags, when posting?
 
Why can't I use proper <b>HTML</b> tags, when posting?
Because this isn't the early 90s and you're not building your own "website".
 
About when-ish will the DD's start to be weekly again? And will these first DD's before diving in the main subject/features be entirely centered on polishing the map or will there be prehaps some QoL centered DD's?

If I was going to make a guess, I'd say after we've announced the next expansion. For now, we will probably just keep posting minor things.