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Doomdark

Chief Creative Officer
Paradox Staff
61 Badges
Apr 3, 2000
5.435
11.356
  • Sword of the Stars II
  • Leviathan: Warships
  • Magicka
  • Majesty 2
  • Majesty 2 Collection
  • March of the Eagles
  • Naval War: Arctic Circle
  • Victoria: Revolutions
  • Rome Gold
  • Semper Fi
  • Sengoku
  • Ship Simulator Extremes
  • Sword of the Stars
  • Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
  • Supreme Ruler 2020
  • Starvoid
  • Teleglitch: Die More Edition
  • The Showdown Effect
  • Victoria 2
  • Victoria 2: A House Divided
  • Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness
  • Rome: Vae Victis
  • Warlock: Master of the Arcane
  • Warlock 2: The Exiled
  • War of the Roses
  • Prison Architect
  • Europa Universalis III
  • Arsenal of Democracy
  • Cities in Motion
  • Cities in Motion 2
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome
  • Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods
  • Crusader Kings II: The Republic
  • Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
  • Crusader Kings II: Sunset Invasion
  • Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dungeonland
  • A Game of Dwarves
  • Divine Wind
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
  • For The Glory
  • For the Motherland
  • Gettysburg
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour
  • Heir to the Throne
  • Impire
The Old Gods has been out for a while now and hopefully you are all enjoying it. We always knew this expansion would be a bit more ambitious than the previous ones - the theme deserves it - so it got a higher budget and more development time. I think it paid off, although it did mean we had to tackle some potentially dangerous risk factors. For example, the new tech system required some fundamental rebalancing of the game and the 867 bookmark took a lot of effort to research and balance (a special thanks to our beta testers and research group!) I am pleased that we overcame those challenges and accomplished our main objectives.

As usual, however, there were a few things we had to leave undone. (This is normal; I always like to have a list of optional features planned in case we have time to squeeze them in.) I had hoped to get diplomatic options in where you could pay protection money to attacking heathens or settle them as vassals (like what happened with Normandy). I also wanted to do something about the Magyars keeping their counties in the Ukraine even after settling in Hungary, but couldn't figure out a good and feasible nomad system in general (the basic game mechanics just do not fit nomadic tribes at all.) However, I still intend to tweak the formation of Hungary event to solve that specific issue at some future point. So, some features got pushed forward to the next patch level (e.g. an automatic plot invitation system), but many of the optional features from the design actually did make it into The Old Gods. For example, many of the Zoroastrian features; Xwedodah marriages, the Saoshyant decision, etc.

Playing the game now, I'm still having a blast. As a pagan ruler, I love to "collect" members of prominent dynasties from all over Europe, convert them, and preserve their dynasties as proper worshippers of the old gods, given land in some corner of my empire. I also love setting challenges for myself. In my last game, as Haesteinn of Nantes, I took over Asturias with a prepared invasion, got a Zoroastrian concubine and converted to her religion in order to get proper succession laws and access to the Holy War CB. Unfortunately, both the Umayyads and West Francia were at that point remarkably stable and decided to jump me, and, to add insult to injury, the other Karlings also decided to join in. Even my mad developer skills could not save me at that point... In other words, tremendous fun! However, it's the developer's curse when playing their own games to constantly add things both big and small to an evergrowing TODO list. (This is good news for you, however, since it means the game will most definitely keep evolving and changing for the better!)

There isn't really much more to say about the development of The Old Gods. From my perspective, it was a smooth and fairly uneventful (in a good way) process. The future will certainly bring more improvements to the game; some of which you can probably see coming, others, I think, will be more surprising. We also have something special planned for August; two smaller DLCs (and no, they are not portrait or unit packs...)

Well, that's it for now. Midsummer is coming up and I hope you will all remember to give the Old Gods a toast! (But take it easy with the human sacrifice, ok?)
 
Tw DLC in one month? I wonder what that could mean. Are they related somehow, but not enough to make one DLC?

Oh, and a question re. the new tech system. Is it WAD that Italy is now the most advanced part of the map in 1066?
 
Haven't bought it yet, but I'm enjoying the changes to the standard scenarios and the various bug fixes. Many thanks for letting me help out, and I look forward to future DLCs.

Please keep improving the other scenarios! :)
 
With the latest patch bringing better balance to Norsemen, I'd say ToG was by and large a good and successful DLC. It added something that the community had been asking for since the game was released, and it added unique vibes to each Pagan religion and also Zoroastrians (which were very well done IMO, they are very fun to play). The new start date is nice too.
 
TOG has been the best DLC so far IMO..
It can clearly be seen that there has been put some time and money in this one, really appreciated that you take your time to make it good, instead of just making it fast, in order to make faster money!

And great to hear that you will keep working to improve - that is one of the things that make CK2 one of the best games I have tried so far...
Thanks for your hard and welldone work...
 
Please give us Crusader Kings Z!!! We need more alternate history DLCs and scenarios. There are people who really want these so if they wouldn't be like too pricey those who wanted them could buy them and those who complain can just leave them be. :)
 
I think, too, that The Old Gods has been the best DLC so far. Even the Sword of Islam wasnt better, cause the Pagans system is very well balanced, while the decadence system has always been a bit controversial.

I hope, that the game will see an improved vassal-ruler relationship as it was suggested in lots of the HRE threads.