Oi oi

My name is: Russ Odoni
My forum nick: Naselus


My name's Russ Odoni, I'm heading toward 30 years old at an alarming rate, and I putter about near Manchester in the UK. I was an IT support monkey for a few years from the age of 17, before going back to university and going into Economic Anthropology (which turns out offers fewer job opportunities than the modding I was doing in my spare time). I was originally an alpha tester for East vs West, but have since been promoted to Head of Research (doctrines and techs). I was also, perhaps not unsurprisingly, involved with designing the economy.
As Head of Research, I've been responsible for designing and implementing the tech tree and, as a result, a big portion of the space race; everything from the number of techs, their pre-requisites, their effect, and even how they're arranged on the screen that the tech team develops. Since we have somewhere around two hundred different techs, that's been quite a task; even more so when each has up to ten levels. I cannot count the number of hours I've spent moving techs 5 pixels to the right or left. ...

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying playing Heart of Darkness. I thought I should do a little dev diary for our modding community and to highlight new things. Naselus of Pop Demand Mod fame and all-around nice guy did a little modder review of the game already here if someone wants more reading after my diary.

The two biggest new areas that are moddable are the new battle plans and the newspaper system.

Battle plans
All you need to start modding this system is referenced from battleplans\bp_settings.txt. It lets you add new drawing tools and icons if you want to add more ways of drawing plans or add more colors.

Newspapers
The newspaper system has extensive support for modding. Its a bit too big to explain in detail here, so if you are interested check out this post where I uploaded documentation for it.
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Hey everyone!

Feast thy eyes on the developer diaries for Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods expansion below!
More is to come on these pagans, so be prepared...

And don´t miss the web comic: Ulm plays Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods as Someone
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...omeone-Archive

Cheers,
regina


Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods - Dev Diary 1 - A Different Europe
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...fferent-Europe

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods - Dev Diary 2 - The Wrath of Odin
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?680207-Crusader-Kings-II-The-Old-Gods-Dev-Diary-2-The-Wrath-of-Odin

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods - Dev Diary 3 - The Heathens Are Coming!
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?683263-Crusader-Kings-II-The-Old-Gods-Dev-Diary-3-The-Heathens-Are-Coming

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Welcome to the 28th development diary for Europa Universalis IV and today we’ve got lots of variety for you - three different subjects. We look at two smaller European countries, each quite different from the other, and then we look into what’s changed with one of the most important events in the game - the Reformation.

Scotland
Scotland has an outsized importance in history considering its meager geography and wealth because of its location. After breaking free from English rule in the 14th century, Scotland was a constant thorn in the side of her larger southern neighbor, and, until the kingdoms were united again under the Stuart dynasty, the Scots were an essential ally for any continental power that wanted to threaten the English. Even after union, Scottish rebels and dissenters could be counted on to counter the throne in London.
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Welcome to the 27th development diary for Europa Universalis IV.* Today, we look into the shadier parts of diplomacy.*As we mentioned in one of earliest dev diaries, we’ve removed spies, but there are some actions that we still consider as “covert”, so we have spy actions, but no spies.
Now, we have diplomats perform these tasks, giving another option for this precious resource.* *

Spy Ideas
If you are really committed to the idea of espionage as an arm of national power, we have an idea group oriented around the spy activities. This group falls into the Administrative Power track of ideas, even though it uses diplomats.
The bonus for having all seven ideas is a +50% bonus to rebel support efficiency.

The seven ideas in the spy group are:
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East vs West Development Diary 6 – Forces: the Order of Battle in EvW
As the world seems to be heading towards World War 3 we’d thought we pick a suitable area of discussion for today, so welcome to the sixth development diary for East vs West: A Hearts of Iron game.
Today’s topic: Forces and the Order of Battle, or, as we call them, OOBs. Even though the term OOBs represents more than just the setup of armed forces at a certain point in history, today we will focus particularly on the land units you’ll have available.

Start from the beginning or jump into it
East vs West has six scenarios, or main starting points:
Cold War Begins 1946,
Arab-Israeli War 1948,
Korean War 1950,
Vietnam War 1961,
Afghanistan War 1979
Gulf War 1991
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The arduous duty great privilege of writing this week's Dev Diary has fallen to me, and in a desperate but vain attempt to fill Doomdark's shoes, I am here to talk a bit about the various options that are open to pagans when waging war.



Prepared Invasions

Norse Pagans, or Vikings as they are known to the common man, have the unique ability to launch Prepared Invasions against non-pagans. This undertaking can only be done by small to middling Viking realms, and the target of your invasion can't be too small or too big (it needs to have between 9 and 40 holdings).

The way this works is that you declare your intention to invade a particular realm. This will cost you a lot of prestige (which can be gained through looting, as explained in the previous Dev Diary), and you'll have two years to prepare before going to war. During this time warriors from across the Norse lands will flock to your banner, hungry for loot and plunder. Needless to say, if you fail to declare war before these two years are up, you will lose face.

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Welcome to the 26th development diary for Europa Universalis IV, and this time we turn our attention to the Low Countries, specifically the medieval great power of Burgundy and the Renaissance mercantile giant the Netherlands. Two very different histories, dominating some very flat and wet territory.

Possibilities

Though its historic power base is in eastern France, by the early 15th century the Valois family and Duchy of Burgundy had purchased or inherited vast stretches of Flemish, Belgian and Dutch lands – what we now call Belgium and the Netherlands. Under a series of outstanding rulers with great sobriquets like “the Bold”, “the Fearless” and “the Good”, Burgundy used its great wealth and strategic position between a weak Holy Roman Empire and a crumbling France to become a major player for a few generations.

For you, the player, Burgundy starts with a ton of options. Do you intervene in the Hundred Year’s War to keep France down, at the risk of England and other powers claiming lands for themselves? Do you expand into the tiny German bishoprics and principalities that dot your northeastern border? ...

Welcome to another developer diary for Europa Universalis IV - the 25th one, in which we discuss the intricacies of the works of Lev Nikolajevitj Tolstoy.

Wargoals
Two concepts that have worked well in our recent games have been setting war goals and the ticking war score. The combination of the two has created a system where what you have to do to win a war is clear and easy to understand.

For newcomers, these systems work like this: war goals, introduced in Victoria II, are the targets you set for a war. These are tightly connected to the casus belli, so your war goal may be to take the core province that you are squabbling over. The “ticking war score”, which we introduced in Crusader Kings II, adds points to your war score as long as you have fulfilled the goals you have set. So if your goal is to take Berlin, your war score increases each day you occupy it.

However one of things that makes Europa Universalis peace system stand out, and that really shines in multiplayer, is its free flowing nature. How much you try to take and claim at the peace table depends very much on how the war is going at this current time. We wanted to preserve this fluid conception of war while still using elements of the war goal/ticking war score systems.
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Well, it's been two weeks, so it's time for another bi-weekly entry in the saga of The Old Gods expansion for Crusader Kings II (we will ramp up the pace to weekly dev diaries from May 1). Today, I'll talk about what is, perhaps, the core feature of the expansion: raiding. All pagans have the option to raid, but it is especially important for Norse and Tengri rulers, who will start losing Prestige if they have been at peace for too long. Rather than declare a regular war, they can opt for some good old fashioned raiding.



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Do you often think that politics doesn't matter and that your vote means nothing? Are you yearning to make a difference? Fear not! We welcome you to a new development diary for the politics of East vs. West, where the major political choices are yours to make!

The purging flame

Your story begins in 1946, in a world recovering from the horrors of World War 2. In politics, as in nature, there are many plants that take advantage of wildfires to grow out of the ashes into new, wider spaces. Quickly seeds and ideas take root in the purging flames, and blossom following the devastation. Ash and decay rapidly turns into a fauna of diversity but also one of tense competition. Will you be able to adapt and take control or will you just be another witness to a freshly burning world?
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With Cities in Motion 2 nearing release at last, we decided to treat you to something more special today rather than another basic piece of game info. We have been very busy at the Colossal Order offices to make the last fixes to the game and polish the final details. It has been a long road to get here, but now we are very happy to be able to present a game that we can truly be proud of.

At Colossal Order, we are currently a team of ten people. Making a large PC simulation game is a feat, but since we are all a bit crazy here, we are also working on another project at the same time. Cities in Motion 2 is our top priority, with the same designer-and-programmer team working on it as with the first Cities in Motion. For me, as the lead designer, it has been great to be able to work on a sequel, because I’m able to do most of the things that didn’t make it to the first game. I like how the dynamic cities work as a visual, natural way of showing the player’s progress in the game, how timetables give you much more control – and, really, I like to just sit and watch the little citizens go about their business. ...

Hello and welcome to the 6th and final DD for HoD, today I’m going to tell you about the changes we’ve made to Industry and a few misc changes that weren’t mentioned yet in earlier DDs.
Let’s look at Industry first, the main change here is factories now get a Throughput bonus when built in a state that produces their input goods, which encourages clusters of related industry. So, for example, a state that produces Iron and Coal is an ideal place for a Steel mill, which is then a good spot for Artillery and Car factories, and eventually Tanks can be built there. This bonus can be up to 25% if all the factory’s inputs are produced locally. For basic factories the bonus is evenly split between input types, but for the more advanced factories which use both manufactured goods and raw materials the bonus is weighted towards the manufactured goods.

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Welcome to the 24th development diary for our empire building game Europa Universalis IV and today we turn our eyes to one of the most interesting nations and a favorite because of its location and variety – The Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman Possibilities

When your story begins in the Grand Campaign, the Empire prospers under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans. In fact, we take our starting date from the dramatic Ottoman victory over an alliance of Christian monarchs at Vama in November, 1444. The Ottomans have flourished economically due to their control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia. The Ottoman Empire is one of the most powerful states in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire.
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Welcome back to another HoD DD, the topic this week is Colonisation. This is something we've changed in many ways in this expansion, it's one of our major focuses.

The first change is that the two techs that used to allow Colonisation, Nationalism & Imperialism and Machine Guns, now no longer directly do so. Instead, the Minimum Life Rating effect which allows you to colonise has been moved to Inventions tied to previous level techs, but with triggers that require someone has researched Nationalism & Imperialism/Machine Guns. The effect of this is that anyone reasonably up to date in techs will receive the Inventions around the same time, preventing one nation from having a monopoly on Colonisation.


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It's time for another cycle of developer diaries on Crusader Kings II and I thought I'd begin by talking about the new start date and giving you a broad overview of the upcoming expansion; The Old Gods. Yes, we're pushing back the earliest possible start date to 867 AD. This is a special bookmark that comes with the expansion (and you will not be able to start at dates between 867 and 1066 without modding.)

Europe is a very different place in 867... Many of the familiar countries have not yet come into being. There is no Hungary, no Poland, no Russian principalities and the British Isles and Scandinavia are full of petty kingdoms. The Carolingians still rule the Franks, but the great Empire of Charlemagne has been divided between four of his descendants. In the Byzantine Empire, a new dynasty has just risen - the House of Makedon - destined to restore some of its former glory. The Muslims are in the middle of a drawn-out crisis as the once enormous Abbasid Caliphate has fractured, with a succession of Caliphs being murdered by their own Turkish generals.


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In Cities in Motion 2, ticketing and fares have grown far more detailed to reflect the varied needs of citizens travelling between different areas of your city. With the larger map size, it was a nice addition to have more ticket types as well as price zones. The system now has 4 kinds of ticket for each vehicle type, and monthly passes for most variations.

Single fare tickets are for one trip without changing a vehicle. They are the cheapest tickets. The single fare ticket does not have a monthly version, but they’re fast and easy to use, and thus popular among citizens who don’t travel often.
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Hello again, it's time for the 4th Victoria II: Heart of Darkness developer diary. This time I'll be talking about the changes we've made to wars and the military in general. While there's no flashy new battle screen like we revealed for naval battles last week, I think you'll still rather like these changes. So, let's get to them!

First of all, we have Ticking War Score (or TWS) based on certain War Goals (WGs), the idea of which is to make it possible to take land from larger nations without having to launch a total war and occupy 90% of their country. TWS can be caused to Tick in two ways, mostly by holding the land in question, but also by winning the majority of battles when using certain War Goals. WGs which deal with the transfer of land use the former, while the Humiliate and Assert Hegemony Goals Tick on battle score.
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Day & Night Cycle

One of the first features that we wanted to put in Cities in Motion 2 was the day and night cycle. It was a great way of graphically showing how time progresses, and also made it possible to create timetables and rush hours. On a city-scale transport simulation, having the cycle offers many, many possibilities to make the game more interesting. There are natural times of action and rest, both for the citizens and the player, and having parameters to modify citizen behavior gives lots of room for interesting tasks. It also adds more layers to the map: instead of the player just having to cover the whole map, there are now different times of day when citizens move differently, and all of these times can be optimized separately. To have the most efficient system, there can be tweaked timetables for all times of day to make sure the amount and size of vehicles is always just right for the amount of citizens wanting to travel.
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