• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Last week I talked about some of the free features we're putting into the upcoming patch 2.1 (i.e. the free parts of the Rajas of India expansion.) This time, I thought I'd round that off, and next week we will finish this cycle of dev diaries with a Q&A thread!

Why not start off by talking about the promised revised decadence system that people have been clamoring for since, well, the release of Sword of Islam? Admittedly, there were many issues with Decadence; for example, the fact that all unlanded men of your dynasty generated decadence regardless of their virtue, which is strange and unrealistic. Gameplay where you automatically tend to imprison your relatives if you cannot give them land is also repetitive and, again, not very realistic. So the system needed revision, and now was the time to do it. With the new system, only characters with the new Decadent trait actually give decadence to your dynasty. Landed characters are less likely to pick up the trait, as are Zealous, Diligent and Just characters, etc. The net effect is that decadent characters are rarer but have a greater effect than before. To make it more interesting, we've removed the free imprisoning of dynasty members for Muslims. Instead, you get a chance to convince Decadent characters to straighten up. The outcome depends on your own attributes and those of the target character. If you're diplomatic, for example, he might be easier to convince. If you're learned, you might get him to go on the Hajj, which will automatically remove the Decadent trait, and so on. If you fail, you do get a reason (i.e. no opinion penalty with vassals) to imprison the character, as a last resort.

ck2_RoI_dd_06_Revised_Decadence.png

Another issue with the decadence system was that it did not really serve to encourage you to land your relatives; you just imprisoned them instead. Thus, in the event where a close relative asks you for a title, there is now a risk that he might start an adventure against you if you refuse, and this is likelier in Muslim realms. Lastly, we've increased the fracturing effects of losing a decadence revolt a bit more.

Ok, so that's the new Decadence system, which is fairly unrelated to the general theme of the expansion (although it should now be more interesting to play as a Muslim, with India to your east...) A change that was absolutely necessary with the bigger map, however, was a form of diplomatic range. We did not want Irish counts marrying Indian princesses, etc. Thus, we added a distance threshold for most diplomatic interactions, as well as for councillor jobs. It's a simple enough change, and the range also happens to be precisely right to stop Norse pagans from marrying West Africans (a pet peeve of many people, since the religions are both in the pagan group.)

ck2_RoI_dd_06_Diplo_Range.png

What else have I got for you? Oh yes, the Steam integration stuff. We've added support for Steam Workshop and multi-player matchmaking, just like we have in Europa Universalis IV. (I predict the big mods will have some issues to sort out, however, since there seems to be a file size limit in Steam Workshop.) In a similar vein, we've also added Borderless Windowed mode. For those who don't know what that is, it's basically that the game is actually running in windowed mode, but it appears as fullscreen, so you don't have to tab out of the game; other windows can be open in front of it.

ck2_RoI_dd_06_Steam_MP.png

Since the save game converter to EU4 is a long-time commitment, we are of course going to support converting your very own India to EU4 as well. Jainism is thus a new religion in EU4, etc.

ck2_RoI_dd_06_867_EU4_Jain.png

That's about it! There are tons and tons of other improvements, of course, but you can ask about them when we post the full change log for the Q&A thread next week.

ck2_RoI_dd_06_867_EU4.png
 
Very interesting. So, if I'm not mistaken, piety is the only toll one has to pay in order to try to straighten up a decadent relative ? It sounds easy to deal with, especially when one has a large empire that generates tons of piety.

Also, why would a player character refuse to straighten up ? What does it cost him ? Does the decadent modifier bring bonuses of some sort ?
 
Re: Diplomatic Range, if I may so suggest, why not divide the map into different continents, with added distance penalty for inter-continent interaction?
Surely some variant of a straight distance modifier is better than artificial continents? Otherwise, what would you do with something like Byzantium, which straddles two continents (what if my count in Anatolia wants to marry a Byzantine countess from Greece)? And the Mediterranean states heavily interacted with North Africa, whether that was Andalusians inviting Berbers to come help fight the Christians, or the Sicilians invading Tunisia. No matter where you put your boundary lines, that's going to interfere with someone in an unrealistic way.

Also, second the question others had about how the decadence changes will effect the Muslim schools.
 
Very interesting. So, if I'm not mistaken, piety is the only toll one has to pay in order to try to straighten up a decadent relative ? It sounds easy to deal with, especially when one has a large empire that generates tons of piety.

Also, why would a player character refuse to straighten up ? What does it cost him ? Does the decadent modifier bring bonuses of some sort ?

He seems to imply, very rarely, that landed characters can become decadent. That would/could be very devastating, especially if they are a power vassal or liege. Maybe even your own character could become decadent.
 
Very interesting. Though, will you be able to act on decadent characters that are not at your court ?
I am thinking about the major concern that is the situation of Rum in the Alexiad Bookmark, were you are not head of the seljuk and decadence becomes crazy because of your inability to stabilize it.

I have to admit though that since the schools have been introduced, one of them hampering decadence, AI seems to manage it far better now.
 
Will Miaphysite ever be represented as separate in the converter? Will Nestorianism?

I honestly don't see why it is so hard for PI to implement them. Just add a few modifiers and let them have Patriarchal Authority like the Orthodox have and it will be good enough. Even if events are a problem, just ctrl+F and add necessary changes.
 
Love everything about the expansion so far except for the diplomatic range. Doesn't sound even remotely fun and it's going to make things a lot more localised, not to mention making long-distance conquests & exploration etc. impossible.

Can we at least get an option to disable it? It's really going to cripple some games a lot too with certain religious groups being isolated from others in their group.
 
He seems to imply, very rarely, that landed characters can become decadent. That would/could be very devastating, especially if they are a power vassal or liege. Maybe even your own character could become decadent.

But 100 piety isn't a big deal for a powerful Muslim ruler.
 
Lastly, we've increased the fracturing effects of losing a decadence revolt a bit more.

Yay!

Though, since nothing has been mentioned about it, I assume that decadence revolts are still a single doomstack that appears instantly out of nowhere? I thought that you'd maybe update it to use the faction system instead.
 
I am somewhat worried that decadence will be trivial to keep in check, especially for players. Otherwise, it's nice.

Disappointed that diplomatic distance will not scale regarding to rank. As I see it, counts should be more restricted than emperors etc. I really really hope they get rid of "Must not marry infidel" now.
 
Love everything about the expansion so far except for the diplomatic range. Doesn't sound even remotely fun and it's going to make things a lot more localised, not to mention making long-distance conquests & exploration etc. impossible.

Can we at least get an option to disable it?

???

How so? From the picture, pretty much all of Europe is within the diplo range of the Middle East and vice versa.
 
first of all i'd like to say that i'm getting really excited about the prospect of RoI Coming out soon! Most importantly however I gotta ask if there's any way to tie diplomatic ranges into tech. For example Trade practices. As of right now there seems to be absolutely no advantage for raising trade practices tech on an inland capital since you can neither use the Port building, or the increase in trade income. It's quite honestly the last thing i ever invest in unless i have a republican vassal but still at that i have no idea if that republic even benefits.

Lastly as well, maybe i should save this one for the Q&A next week but i really gotta ask what happens in a vassal of mine refuses to give his son a title. I'm sure the AI still receives this event, but what will I as liege have to put up with? Does this war to claim a title get called on the highest ranking person in the realm or directly on the person who refused to grant a title?
 
But 100 piety isn't a big deal for a powerful Muslim ruler.

Sure, but that doesn't mean they will be willing to straighten up, so you just spent 100 piety and can arrest them, do you arrest them if they're a vassal that encompass half the realm, is it worth the risk? Of course that might be incredibly rare, but you might not always succeed in arresting them.
 
Sure, but that doesn't mean they will be willing to straighten up, so you just spent 100 piety and can arrest them, do you arrest them if they're a vassal that encompass half the realm, is it worth the risk? Of course that might be incredibly rare, but you might not always succeed in arresting them.

It doesn't happen that often to have a powerful relative owning half the realm. At least, not after some time into the game. For me, it still looks like a good way to get an excuse to jail a disturbing guy.

Anyway, we don't know. Let's see how it plays out.

EDIT : btw, will realm size still impact decadence gain ? Then it could get really bad.
 
Will the converter be tweaked to fix some of the weird quirks? Like the HRE using the duchy level colors, resulting in a large grey mass, and the Arab nations using the duchy/kingdom Christian graphics?
 
Love everything about the expansion so far except for the diplomatic range. Doesn't sound even remotely fun and it's going to make things a lot more localised, not to mention making long-distance conquests & exploration etc. impossible.

One of PI's current goals is to make the long distance conquests impossible outside Crusades. And this is not what will stop it so much, but the new Attrition Changes where going too far away from your borders will decimate your army.

Because they haven't added them as a Religion in EUIV

Neither are there Jewish, Zoroastrian, Norse, Slavic, Finnic, Baltic, Tengri and West African in EU4 yet the converter will give them to you.

I'm a bit confused. Which is it? Can you please elaborate on what happens after a lost decadence revolt in the new patch?

I think what he means to say is that rather than the current "Change dynasty" state of lost Decadent Revolts, we are more likely to see large realms split into a dozen realms.