Crusader Kings II - Dev Diary 17 - The Message System

[Doomdark]

Hello again folks!

It's Thursday, and... well, you know the drill by now. The subject for today is the message system. Basically, we have been trying to find ways of making messages less intrusive. In a single player environment, a steady stream of pop-ups is not that bad, but when you run a multiplayer game where you cannot pause all the time, pop-ups are incredibly annoying. So we added the little Message Window and nuked all pop-up messages. Those of you who have played Sengoku will be familiar with that system. However, there are problems with that approach. Pop-ups still have their place when a message is really important. Thus, for Crusader Kings II, we took a few steps back.

What we have now is a system very similar to the one in Victoria II and EU3: Divine Wind, but instead of the little flag notifiers we have the new Message Window. Message pop-ups can be customized to look like either letters or normal event windows, and can be toggled on or off for every message type. They also support custom (and fully moddable) pictures and sounds. Oh, and you will probably be pleased to know that the message log is back again.



There are a few special pop-up messages, such as battle results and the message you get when a child is born (where you get the option of naming the baby yourself.)



That's all for now. Next week: Crusader Pandas.

[PdoxLP]

We already saw it in the stream yesterday, but: YAY MESSAGE LOG!

[Gwyn ap Nud]

Personally, I'll probably turn most things to a instant-pause message, just because, goddammit, that's how I've played all PI games! Except CK, where the messages would unpause the game the second you clicked them, but still.
Still wish you had gone with the indicators that were in VII, or DW. Those were better...

[ssj18vegeta]

Pandas

OH NOO!! Not you too!?

[Nuril]

+1 for more possibilities for custom preferences always being good. Message log. <3 I also really like the way the map is looking now.

And..

That's all for now. Next week: Crusader Pandas.

wat?

[Chipster]

wat?

I think he is referring to the fact that the next World of Warcraft expansion has Pandas, much to the chagrin of many on the internet.

But I always felt that a medieval Europe, dynasy-centric game needed more pandas. How could it go wrong?

[Doomdark]

But I always felt that a medieval Europe, dynasy-centric game needed more pandas. How could it go wrong?

Exactly!

[Spectacle]

Are those impassable mountains I see in Norway in the last screenshot?

[Ezzezze]

That's all for now. Next week: Crusader Pandas.

WoW joke.

Unless this is a spectacular joke where you hint mongol invasions are Panda Crusaders and the next DD is all about mongol invasions

[Doomdark]

Are those impassable mountains I see in Norway in the last screenshot?

That's right

[Aemilian]

The message window just convinced me on this one. Mordvins, obscure Norse-Gael duchies and all that kind of historical esoterica are part of the charm of Paradox. Good job!

[PdoxLP]

Are those impassable mountains I see in Norway in the last screenshot?

In the stream Johan talked about impassable terrain. I believe he showed the Alps, Norway and the Pyrenees. Armies can't travel across the border in those areas.

[Walker85]

Possibility to customize every pop-up to look like a letter or normal window sounds interesting. Is it possible to decide that some of message types will look like windows and other types will look like letters?

[Doomdark]

Possibility to customize every pop-up to look like a letter or normal window sounds interesting. Is it possible to decide that some of message types will look like windows and other types will look like letters?

Yep

[iron0037]

Thanks for the new diary! I have one minor suggestion on the naming window. It's great that you have a suggested name and the ability to write in your own. But what if I don't care for Astrid, but I want another Swedish sounding name for my princess? Being that I'm not too familiar with Swedish names, this might be challenging without additional choices. If I'm Polish or Bulgarian or Georgian, I have even less of a clue of what an apt name would be.

So what you might do is add a pulldown menu or list of some kind where you have alternate names based on your dynasty or culture. That would be awesome .

[Walker85]

Thanks. Reading DD has been interesting and it seems that message system will be cool, but I wouldn't mind few good Beta AARs

[Tulwath]

The best of both worlds! Sengoku's lack of customizable pop-ups is really annoying me.

[Wallain]

That's all for now. Next week: Crusader Pandas.

The final touch to make this a game of legends. Pandam vult.

[SorelusImperion]

Renaming children, a much wanted feature since CK1, seems to have become reality.

[A_Dane]

so, there's only gonna be one proposed name? Would of liked a few more, but the mere fact that I can name them whatever I want, makes it up

(though, what will the AI do? I've always felt weird seeing capetian King Roger I of France :s)