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It's time for the second of three dev diaries on the new expansion for Crusader Kings II; the Sword of Islam! Those who watched yesterday's live stream already know a bit of what I'll talk about today. Just like last time, I'll talk about both some unique Sword of Islam features and some free stuff that comes with patch 1.06.

THE SWORD OF ISLAM

Our intention was always that playing a Muslim should feel quite different from playing a Christian ruler. One of the major differences, of course, is the ease with which you can ensure the continuation of your line. Muslim men are allowed to marry up to four women, and bastardy does not carry the same stigma. This means that Muslim dynasties tend to be huge and sprawling; especially the powerful ones. Unfortunately, all these princelings will expect a share of your wealth, and unless you can give them enough land and responsibilities, they will grow decadent, or at least, your dynasty will be perceived as being decadent. Decadent dynasties risk being replaced by more dynamic and righteous ones, and also suffer penalties to troop morale and demesne income. To compensate for these problems, Muslims have an easier time conquering, through special Casus Bellis (more on those next dev diary.)

Polygamy

The way polygamy works is that only your first wife gives you a skill bonus, but you're allowed to marry up to four. They all give you alliances, and they can all provide you with heirs. Rulers are expected to marry a number of wives corresponding to their station, so a Sultan should have four, or he will take a monthly prestige hit, whereas an Emir is only expected to have three wives, etc. Having multiple wives means that you will produce a lot of offspring, many of them half-siblings. Ambitious mothers will tend to favour their own sons, which can lead to all kinds of nasty business through events...

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Open Succession Law

Muslims have access to only one succession law: 'open', also known as 'Turkish'. The way it works is that your son with the most titles and vassals inherits. There is no "unlanded sons" Prestige penalty, but there is still pressure on you to land all of your sons, because adult men of your dynasty will accrue Decadence. In the Muslim world, brothers, especially half-brothers, dislike each other (negative opinion modifier.) This means that Muslims tend to suffer frequent succession crises.

Decadence

Decadence lies at the heart of the Sword of Islam. It's what really separates Muslims from Christians; not that Christians could not be perceived as being individually decadent, but there was not the same type of friction between clans and tribes. Thus, decadence affects the whole dynasty. Dynasties start out with 25% decadence, which has no effect one way or the other. Decadence increases by having indolent, unlanded males of your dynasty kicking about, depending on their rank and the total rank of all titles held by members of your dynasty. Dynasty members who give decadence are listed in a new list in the Religion View (well, they are immoral.) You stop them from gaining decadence primarily by giving them enough land, imprisoning them or simply killing them off. You only lose decadence when dynasty members fight in battles and sieges, or through certain events. The decadence level affects the morale damage your demesne troops take and the tax income from your demesne. At 75% decadence or more, there is a very real risk of a more dynamic tribe riding in from the wastes to depose you and your whole House (this is one serious rebellion...)

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THE 1.06 PATCH

On to the 1.06 patch!

Strong and Weak Claims

There is a problem with the old claim system, in that some very remote relative can just declare war to supplant not just a perfectly legitimate ruler, but also the next five people in line to the throne. Therefore, we've reworked the system to differentiate between strong and weak claims. Strong claims work like before, but are only given to the second and third person in line to the throne when a ruler dies. Weak claims are given to children who are further down the line of succession. When a strong claimant dies (and the claim is "pressed"), it is inherited as a weak claim. Weak claims can only be pressed against women (if the claimant is male), regencies, titles currently in a succession crisis and titles that the claimant is second or third in line to inherit.

Plots

We've added and changed some things. Chiefly, we've added a plot to gain a claim on the title of a target character. Also, the murder plots have been completely reworked. You no longer get decisions that you can simply execute at various plot power levels. Instead, plotters can randomly find opportunities to strike depending on their contribution to the plot power.

Event Window improvements


We've made some changes to make event windows more appealing. You can now see the icon, with tooltips, of traits being added or removed in an event option. Also, event options that only appear if you have a high enough skill are now properly marked with a coloured border.

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I believe that will do for now. Next week I'll talk about the Muslims CBs, vassal treatment, temple holdings and laws, as well as some more patch features. Until then!
 
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Since you said the mechanics are in the game even if I didn't buy it, does that mean if I force-switch myself to a Muslim ruler, I would be able to use the mechanics without paying? :unsure:
 
Since you said the mechanics are in the game even if I didn't buy it, does that mean if I force-switch myself to a Muslim ruler, I would be able to use the mechanics without paying? :unsure:

It's most probable they'll have to disable both that cheat and the ability to modify religions.txt to let you play muslims.

A quibble I have with this new claim system is that many claims in the middle ages that actually led to war were based on very distant claims.
 
Decadence sounds nice, in a way I kind of wish there was something along the same lines for Christian Dynasties.

And Anj I too am wondering how this Strong v Weak claim system will work. Sounds like it may destroy the ability to expand via marriages based upon claims especially if weak claims can only be pressed versus female rulers. But in a way I suppose its probably a good change, wonder what category fabricated claims will fall under now??? Sorry if someone asked that already lol 13 pages of comments is a lot to dig through.
 
Because CK2's diplomacy system would make the addition of India silly. I could be playing the Duke of Iceland and I could send requests to the Raja of Delhi for a marriage and stuff. If they want to push the map past Persia, I think they'd have to introduce something like EU3's terra incognita to hide some countries from each other.


You could set it up so that a further away a kingdom is away from the other one they are less likely to accept marriage proposal...or terra incognita like EUIII is a good idea too.

The Kingdoms of the Ghaznavids and later the Ghurids (Birjand and Herat in the 1066 scenario) extended into India (the Ghaznavids at this time controlled Punjab) and the Ghurids conquered Delhi after the second battle of Tarain in 1092 laying the foundations for the Delhi Sultanate. The remnants of the Ghurids tried retreating into India when the Mongols showed up and for the next 100 years the Mongol border was somewhere around Lahore...no to mention Timur's invasion of Delhi in 1398. So India has a lot of interaction with the eastern part of the map. With Europe not as much...but then again the Dukes of Iceland were probably not as well informed about Eastern Persia either
 
Decadence sounds nice, in a way I kind of wish there was something along the same lines for Christian Dynasties.

And Anj I too am wondering how this Strong v Weak claim system will work. Sounds like it may destroy the ability to expand via marriages based upon claims especially if weak claims can only be pressed versus female rulers.

The new claim system will make things more challenging, yes. But weak claims can also be pressed against regencies, during succession crises, and if the claimant in question is a pretender to the title. Probably, the easiest scenario to manufacture would be a succession crisis. As for marriages, you'll just have to be more selective about whom you go after, so you can get your foot in the door, so to speak. And don't forget to re-marry the claimant matrilineally.
 
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You could set it up so that a further away a kingdom is away from the other one they are less likely to accept marriage proposal...or terra incognita like EUIII is a good idea too.

The Kingdoms of the Ghaznavids and later the Ghurids (Birjand and Herat in the 1066 scenario) extended into India (the Ghaznavids at this time controlled Punjab) and the Ghurids conquered Delhi after the second battle of Tarain in 1092 laying the foundations for the Delhi Sultanate. The remnants of the Ghurids tried retreating into India when the Mongols showed up and for the next 100 years the Mongol border was somewhere around Lahore...no to mention Timur's invasion of Delhi in 1398. So India has a lot of interaction with the eastern part of the map. With Europe not as much...but then again the Dukes of Iceland were probably not as well informed about Eastern Persia either

Modifiers might be an easy way to represent off-map strength. Boosted levies in border provinces to represent unrepresented provinces.
 
Interesting. But giving muslim nations 'special' casus belli to facilitate distribution of land is a bad idea. They are already too OP, that'll just make the reconquista and the crusades more of a pain than they already are.
 
Interesting. But giving muslim nations 'special' casus belli to facilitate distribution of land is a bad idea. They are already too OP, that'll just make the reconquista and the crusades more of a pain than they already are.
OP? Gash, nice joke.
Then why they always loosing territory in Spain (first gaining, but always at end loosing to France/HRE and sometimes England/someone else).
Why they loosing Mauretania due to OP Hre and Crusades?
Why they loosing Mesopotania due to Byzantine?
Egypt/Jerusalem due to crusades?
Persia due to Mongols?
Yeah, musilm are op.

However, the best way to balance game, is nerf Byz, it's never fallen. :|
 
Arabs don't have any special buildings right now, correct? Hopefully, Sword of Islam will change that.

I believe that was anwered a couple pages back and that the answer was yes. Its also probably necessary considering just how many cultures this will open up to the players and keeping it restricted at that point is crazy. That and the Turkish already have their own culture building so there is already one.
 
OP? Gash, nice joke.
Then why they always loosing territory in Spain (first gaining, but always at end loosing to France/HRE and sometimes England/someone else).
Why they loosing Mauretania due to OP Hre and Crusades?
Why they loosing Mesopotania due to Byzantine?
Egypt/Jerusalem due to crusades?
Persia due to Mongols?
Yeah, musilm are op.

However, the best way to balance game, is nerf Byz, it's never fallen. :|

Well, your point about Spain and Persia would actually be historical... But yes, the rest is well taken. As for the Byzantines, they don't need to be nerfed so much as they need to have their internal problems better represented. More infighting would make them more susceptible to outside invasion.
 
I really like the change to succession laws! And sword of Islam looks great!
I was wondering though with the change in succession laws... Lets say a female ruler takes over the throne of England and a crisis begins with a week claimant to the throne... the Duke of York. He quickly takes over and is the new king. I am the King of Scotland who has a claim on the throne through my mothers mother or something. Will I now be able to attack England seeming that the new king is not as legitimate as a normal king or would I have to go to war during the actual crisis? (Sorry if this has been asked before I don't have time, sadly, to go through 13 pages)
 
OP? Gash, nice joke.
Then why they always loosing territory in Spain (first gaining, but always at end loosing to France/HRE and sometimes England/someone else).
Why they loosing Mauretania due to OP Hre and Crusades?
Why they loosing Mesopotania due to Byzantine?
Egypt/Jerusalem due to crusades?
Persia due to Mongols?
Yeah, musilm are op.

However, the best way to balance game, is nerf Byz, it's never fallen. :|

mongols wiped the floor with them historically. anyway, nerf the byzantines, nerf iberia so the INITIAL kingdoms survive and buff africa to make them MUCH less likely to fall to france ect.(maybe makethem map extend further down so you ahve a 3 duchy thick inland?)