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Well, it's Friday and high time to spill the beans on the new expansion for Crusader Kings II; the Sword of Islam. Judging by the forum, playable Muslims is the most requested feature for CKII, and who are we to disagree? We always wanted to do it, provided we could do the Muslim world justice. That time is now (or, well, soon :) ). As with the Ruler Designer DLC, the Sword of Islam will be released together with a major content patch. What you get with the Sword of Islam is simply the ability to play as the Muslim rulers, but all the new mechanics will be there and running for the AI (or other players in multiplayer) even if you don't have the expansion.

I'll be doing three dev diaries on the Sword of Islam, each one dealing with some unique features for the Muslims as well as some free features that everyone will have access to simply by patching to 1.06.

THE SWORD OF ISLAM

One of the major hassles with making Muslims playable was the prevalence of text with obviously Christian or Western terminology. Therefore, we had to go through all text to make it fit the setting if you are playing a Muslim. Often, this required writing whole new events and decisions. For example, Muslims don't hold tournaments, they have the Furusiyya instead, which is an exhibition of martial arts and horsemanship. They don't hold Grand Feasts, they observe the Ramadan, etc. We also added some completely new decisions, like going on the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), which will initiate a cool little event driven story of what happens on the way to and from the holy city. Of course, there is also a whole slew of events dealing with various new gameplay features (more on that in later dev diaries.)

Another issue we needed to solve was the Gothic looking graphical interface of Crusader Kings II, which we felt did not really work when playing as a Muslim ruler. So we did a complete reskin with sand tones and green symbols and patterns instead of the church window graphics of Christian rulers. Yet another problem was that many event pictures looked distinctly Western/Christian, so we've added about 25 new ones to serve as Muslim equivalents. Then there are all the little things, like trait icons with crosses, the Crusade banner, etc. All of that has been changed to provide the right atmosphere. We've even changed the five councillor models for Muslims when they're out in the provinces performing jobs. It's all been a lot of work, but I think it turned out really well.

Muslims get a slightly different set of character traits; they don't get the Kinslayer, Crusader, Celibate and Chaste Traits. Instead, they get the Mujahid, Hajjaj, Faqih (Islamic law expert), Hafiz (has memorized the Koran), Sayyid (agnatic descendent of Fatima or one of Muhammad's uncles) and Mirza (child of a Sayyida mother) traits.

Lastly, Muslims get another set of honorary titles to hand out to their vassals. They all get a few special flavour events - especially the Chief Qadi - a position requiring an ecclesiastical education.

SoI_04.jpg

That's it for the Sword of Islam in this dev diary; next time I will go into the core dynamics of playing as a Muslim ruler.

THE 1.06 PATCH

Now then, here's some of the free stuff we're giving ya'll in the 1.06 patch...

First off, we thought the southwest corner of the map looked a bit dull, so we added a bunch of new provinces down there, representing the flourishing civilizations of the Manden people; Ghana, Mali and Songhay. The area comes with historical rulers (of course) and a new West African culture group. The region is rich but hard to reach.

SoI_05.jpg

For flavour, we have also made it so that duchy tier and above titles held by rulers of Iranian, Arabic and Turkish cultures are named after the ruling dynasty. For example, the Kingdom of Egypt automatically becomes the Fatimid Sultanate while the Fatimids are in power (though the original name is also used where appropriate.) In case the same dynasty holds several high rank titles, only the highest is named after the dynasty. Thus, we can have both a Seljuk Sultanate and a Sultanate of Rum, both ruled by the Seljuk dynasty. Randomly generated characters of these cultures automatically get a dynasty name suitable to name states after (ending with -id or -n, etc).

SoI_01.jpg

Lastly (for this dev diary), there are seven new creatable empires (the Arabian Empire, the Empire of Persia, Britannia, Scandinavia, Francia, Spain and Russia) and a whole slew of new de jure kingdoms, mostly to break up the old kingdom of Khazaria. Now, I know the addition of the new empires is controversial, but the creation conditions are designed to be fairly difficult to achieve, so the AI will very rarely do it. We want players to have the imperial option to strive for if they so desire - the Unions turned out to be a popular feature in Europa Universalis III.

SoI_02.jpg

Oh, and before anyone asks, patch 1.06 will be semi-compatible with old save games: you will be able to keep playing, but we're making no guarantees that the balance will not be completely upset, or that any added new provinces will be active and working.

That's it for now. Next week I'll talk about polygamy, decadence, and strong and weak claims!
 
Sorry if this has been asked, but with the new Muslim interface gfx, will we be able to mod new inferface gfx for other religions or perhaps cultures??

Will the interface gfx change in-game if by chance your Muslim dynasty becomes Christian?
 
Just to be sure: you guys are removing the ability to play as muslims for people who don't have the DLC in 1.06, right?

Does this mean playable = yes won't work anymore and we go back to only being able to play as christians? Or is it just the muslims specifically and you can still use playable = yes to play as pagans or as any other modded religious group? Because if it's the former, you'll wreak havoc with plenty of mods...
 
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I don't. But I do know what we sold, and playable Muslims was not one of the features - not even through modding which was only added later in a patch.
So does that mean that it will be desactivated only for people who bougth the game before that patch? will others still be able to buy the DLC? (that migth explain why i haden't had the 1.6 update :( )
Some other technical question i would like to ask:
-Will people with and withouth DLC be able to play together (as is now with other DLCs) or is it more like en expansion, and the same versions are needed?
-Is there alredy an idee howmany DLC will be produced for CK2 until it is "complete"?
-Will in the final state of the game some mod-capacities be left or everything will be covered by DLCs? (mostly focused on plots, graphics as these are the most modded areas for my game)
 
So does that mean that it will be desactivated only for people who bougth the game before that patch? will others still be able to buy the DLC? (that migth explain why i haden't had the 1.6 update :( )
Some other technical question i would like to ask:
-Will people with and withouth DLC be able to play together (as is now with other DLCs) or is it more like en expansion, and the same versions are needed?
-Is there alredy an idee howmany DLC will be produced for CK2 until it is "complete"?
-Will in the final state of the game some mod-capacities be left or everything will be covered by DLCs? (mostly focused on plots, graphics as these are the most modded areas for my game)

You don't have the 1.06 update because it hasn't been released yet. :p Also, the whole purpose of this approach to DLCs (releasing a lot of the content in the patch, etc), was stated to be so that people can play together whether they have a particular DLC or not.
 
Just to quickly pop in RE: empires:

There is a precedent for the formation of various empires all over Europe, which is that in the later days of the WRE, a lot of short-lived splinter kingdoms existed under Roman-Something (Gallo-Roman, Romano-Briton, Roman-Iberian, etcetera) leaders who had been acclaimed Imperator by the local legions. So to a certain degree, there's a precedent for local leaders to claim continuity from the WRE, presumably by emulating Charlemagne.
 
Four question are Sufi join able yea for Islamic mysticism?

Two will be special requirement to become a Caliph?

Three will have the political theory of sultan work into the game of how they are appoint by god, but lose appoint one somebody take there throne away, very similar to the mandate of heaven in china, other word legitimacy does not bloodline for sultan but how if hold it and how long?

Four question since many of middle east is not great farmland people crowd into major cities, such as Baghdad, Caro Damascus, So everything was really focus into the city they century of Islamic world, when comes trade, thought etc. Will be properly representative in game through modifier or events?
 
Just to be sure: you guys are removing the ability to play as muslims for people who don't have the DLC in 1.06, right?

Does this mean playable = yes won't work anymore and we go back to only being able to play as christians? Or is it just the muslims specifically and you can still use playable = yes to play as pagans or as any other modded religious group? Because if it's the former, you'll wreak havoc with plenty of mods...

It's been answered a few pages back. Basically they're not removing the ability to play as christian-style muslims like you can now. Rather than playable = yes you simply change the name "muslim" to "myfirstmuslim" or something, and the restriction of requiring the DLC to play as a "muslim" won't trigger and of course you won't get any of the new mechanics if you do that.
 
It's been answered a few pages back. Basically they're not removing the ability to play as christian-style muslims like you can now. Rather than playable = yes you simply change the name "muslim" to "myfirstmuslim" or something, and the restriction of requiring the DLC to play as a "muslim" won't trigger and of course you won't get any of the new mechanics if you do that.
Thanks, I hadn't seen that one. Takes a load off my mind :)
 
I kind of wish there was a substantive distinction in the game between Sultans and Maliks (Kings). Seeing as how the Bishopric settlement doesn't really fit for Mullahs/Scholars and such, it could be a good idea to use it for a theological ruler like Sultans and tweak the clerical mechanics a bit for Muslims so they can still pass their titles to their sons. Religious settlement capitals would make you a Sultan and castles would make you a Malik. I'd like that a lot.
 
It's been answered a few pages back. Basically they're not removing the ability to play as christian-style muslims like you can now. Rather than playable = yes you simply change the name "muslim" to "myfirstmuslim" or something, and the restriction of requiring the DLC to play as a "muslim" won't trigger and of course you won't get any of the new mechanics if you do that.

I posted this a few pages back, but cant you just load up the game..open the cheats console and type

play charid

for whatever non-playable ruler you want to play. Unless you choose a republic, theocracy or the non-ruler the game should let you keep on playing
 
Sorry if this has been asked, but with the new Muslim interface gfx, will we be able to mod new inferface gfx for other religions or perhaps cultures??

Will the interface gfx change in-game if by chance your Muslim dynasty becomes Christian?

Another question I asked a while back...if the interface changes what happens to the multiple wives of a polygamous muslim who converts...do the extra ones get divorced? Or does he get into trouble with the church like Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse?
 
You don't have the 1.06 update because it hasn't been released yet. :p Also, the whole purpose of this approach to DLCs (releasing a lot of the content in the patch, etc), was stated to be so that people can play together whether they have a particular DLC or not.
I've never understood this reasoning, because it's trivially easy to play without the DLC. You can uninstall it or uncheck it in the launcher.
 
Uhh, there was no difficulty of maintaining separate game versions. The newest expansion was the only version supported. That's an unfortunate choice in some ways, but it seems far less complicated than the inclusive DLC model they've chosen for CK2.
 
will we have a African portrait DLC

This is something I'd like to know, too. We really could use one already, for the Ethiopians, but now that they're adding Mali, it's doubly relevant. I'm kind of hoping that this will be included, and the new portraits just weren't ready for the screenshots and video, but they haven't said anything. If not, I hope they come out with such a thing soon. (For that matter, I'd like more variation in the existing portrait sets. Should Iranians really be as dark-skinned as Arabs? And why aren't there any blond or red-headed Europeans?)
 
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Lastly (for this dev diary), there are seven new creatable empires (the Arabian Empire, the Empire of Persia, Britannia, Scandinavia, Francia, Spain and Russia) and a whole slew of new de jure kingdoms, mostly to break up the old kingdom of Khazaria. Now, I know the addition of the new empires is controversial, but the creation conditions are designed to be fairly difficult to achieve, so the AI will very rarely do it. We want players to have the imperial option to strive for if they so desire - the Unions turned out to be a popular feature in Europa Universalis III.

Russias an Empire? Holy bejubus! This is all I wanted. I was planning on starting something up to get it added in. This gives me something to fight the Mongols with :)As an edited question. What will be Russia's Shield? The Nice looking one from EU3 or the crappy looking Russian Empire one from Vicky 2?