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It's time again, to fan the flames of speculation, chagrin and wonderment!

This week, I'll speak of buildings. In Crusader Kings, as you probably remember, you could build improvements in your counties; things like a library, a road network or money lenders. These would unlock as technology advanced in the county, and, once built, would improve stuff like taxation, defensibility and levy size. Crusader Kings II, not to be outdone by its predecessor, has a very similar system, except you do not build improvements per county, but per Holding (i.e. the baronies within a county. In Crusader Kings II, your Demesne does not consist of a number of counties, but of Holdings.)

You can click on any Holding in the game to inspect which improvements it has, the size and composition of its levy and garrison, its fortification level and its base tax. If the Holding is part of your own demesne, you can build new improvements there (if any are available and you can afford them.) Castle, City and Church type holdings have different sets of buildings consistent with their role (remember, for example, that Cities are burgher dominated, rich, with sizable ship levies, and so on.) Not only that, but many cultures have their own slightly different sets of buildings. Thus, some Mongol Castle improvements will increase the number of Horse Archers, whereas the corresponding German type would increase the number of Knights.

Another nifty feature of the Holding View is that you can change the name of the Holding if its lord is your subject - this has no effect on the gameplay, of course, but it's still fun (especially in multiplayer.) Naturally, you can also rename counties.

Crusader_Kings_2_DevDiary_111013.png

That's all for now. Until next week!
 
"Base tax" - what does that mean? Base tax as in EU3?

Well, similar at least. It's just the income that the Holding provides, nominally.


Is the levy type connected to the building, the province culture, or the holder? If a mongol horde ends up conquering syria, will the buildings change to mongol instantly? Or will the mongols suddenly end up with arab-style armies instead of horse archers? If so, how do you change it to your own type of levy?

If I go crusadin' and grab a mongol province (perhaps one of the syrian ones I mentioned), will I suddenly be able to field a horse archer army?

There is a basic levy that everyone gets, but buildings of the wrong culture are automatically destroyed under certain conditions.
 
"Base tax" - what does that mean? Base tax as in EU3?



Is the levy type connected to the building, the province culture, or the holder? If a mongol horde ends up conquering syria, will the buildings change to mongol instantly? Or will the mongols suddenly end up with arab-style armies instead of horse archers? If so, how do you change it to your own type of levy?

If I go crusadin' and grab a mongol province (perhaps one of the syrian ones I mentioned), will I suddenly be able to field a horse archer army?

When (not if :)) I grab the Kingdom of Jerusalem area in the first crusade, will I (as in CK) have access only to arab armies, with arab sprites?

Thanks for another dev diary!

They should end up with arab armies TBH.
Because military is partly culture based and arabs are not naturally horse archers and thus not accepted in the mongol army as horse archers.
 
Will it be possible for certain holdings be tied to higher titles? For instance can the lordship of Constantinople be tied to the title of the byzantine emperor?

No. But it's scripted as their preferred capital.
 
wow more thing to pour your money in. problem was that if done right (with tech advances) you get overflowing coffers @ ck1 thus only answer to spend your cash is to mass crusade so great job paradox , deus vult
 
They should end up with arab armies TBH.
Because military is partly culture based and arabs are not naturally horse archers and thus not accepted in the mongol army as horse archers.

Feels a little weird as a crusader to rely only on my arab muslim levies to fight arabs. But then again, I'll have the military orders to help me.

Doomdark, thanks for the answer. Will army sprites be tied to province culture alone, or to these buildings? And will this mean I can somewhat easily recruit european-style heavy infantry/cavalry (knights) from my crusader states (by building european castles, Krak des Chevaliers-style)? Sounds nice!
 
No. But it's scripted as their preferred capital.
Ok that sounds good.

Another question would be: how well can city settlements be fortified? Some, like the aforementioned byzantine capital, had nearly-impregnable defenses, so I hope that it will be possible to heavily fortify cities too and not just castles.

PS Getting more and more excited with each dev diary, I'm really curious what else will be in that game by the time it ships in February.
 
Let's say I'm the HRE and the count of Holland is my vassal and I own a castle in the county of Holland. Does the count of Holland receive taxes and troops from my holding?

No, he does not, but he will not be happy with the situation.

Will it be a viable strategy to hold castles in this way? I quite like the idea of "royal castles" spread thoughout my realm. Would the objections of the local count be effected by whether the castle is held by his de jure leige - ie would it be easier for the king of England to hold a castle in Cornwall than it would be for the king of France?
 
thats all awesome!! i assume events/decisions will change important counties names on cultural changes? as with alsace-lorriane in V2
as for the culture thing, are there any differences or benefits say welsh over english? or is it just the big mongol/european/arabic groups thats have special qualities?
 
thats all awesome!! i assume events/decisions will change important counties names on cultural changes?
as for the culture thing, are there any differences or benefits say welsh over english? or is it just the big mongol/european/arabic groups thats have special qualities?

It's mostly the big culture groups.
 
Ok that sounds good.

Another question would be: how well can city settlements be fortified? Some, like the aforementioned byzantine capital, had nearly-impregnable defenses, so I hope that it will be possible to heavily fortify cities too and not just castles.

PS Getting more and more excited with each dev diary, I'm really curious what else will be in that game by the time it ships in February.

Cities can also be fortified of course, but not quite up to the level of military Holdings (castles).
 
By the way, since you can only hold castle holdings (you can only hold castles as baronies.. right?), not cities or churches in your demense, what will happen if I end up with a claim to a city/church barony, or revoke a title to gain one? Will it change type, with special building being destroyed? Or is it even possible?
 
By the way, since you can only hold castle holdings (you can only hold castles as baronies.. right?), not cities or churches in your demense, what will happen if I end up with a claim to a city/church barony, or revoke a title to gain one? Will it change type, with special building being destroyed? Or is it even possible?

You can have the other types in your demesne as well, but they will not provide their full income.
 
Nice preview but ideas like "Mongol castle" are big throw off. Aren't you even gonna consider some cultural differences that existed in real life, as Mongol Horde didn't quite build castles, etc?
 
No, he does not, but he will not be happy with the situation.
Ok. Thanks for the answer.

I'm sorry but I have another question about this concept. What happens if I'm the count of Friesland and own a castle in the county of Holland? Do I pay taxes and troops in that case? Or to rephrase: do landed (in this case meaning count or higher) non-lieges pay taxes and troops for holdings they hold in someone else's county? Or to rephrase in another way: who pays taxes to counts and who doesn't?

I think the added layer below count and the resulting cross-vassalage is a great addition to the game.
 
Donjon is also the origin of the term dungeon.

I certainly hope it is dungeon. In the sense that my spymaster can do terrible things to people in said dungeon to unveil plots.

(And so I can smirk at the screen and say "Well at least I didn't use a SPOON")