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CK2 Dev Diary #17: Crusader Cats

Hello everyone! I’m Virvatuli, one of the Content Designers on The Reaper’s Due, which also happens to be my very first project here at Paradox. It’s been so much fun working on this DLC and I hope you’ll have even more fun playing it! In this week’s DD (another first for me), I will reveal one of Reaper’s most important features. Oh, okay, it might not be that important, but at least it’s my personal favourite and pet project. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you cats.

For the longest time, there’s been a issue regarding the representation of pets in Crusader Kings 2. In the realm of companion animals, there has been a worrisome lack of diversity. Most of you who play Way of Life have probably had a loyal hunting dog, there have been some events regarding birds of prey, and a lucky few Conclave players might have encountered a tiny rodent friend. Sadly, that has been pretty much it on the pet front. To rectify this serious problem we’ve added some additional furry and feathered friends in The Reaper’s Due. As we did, of course we couldn’t leave out the best animal of them all: our Feline Overlords, Befurred Ninjas, Gods of the Internet.

In the new DLC you can befriend a cat in a number of ways. However, as any Dwarf Fortress player or real-life cat lover knows, you do not adopt a cat. A cat adopts you. Once your feline friend has decided that you’re the one and only slave for it, you will receive a fancy “Pet Cat” character modifier (unless you scare it away, you horrible person). It will give your character +1 health, as the cat brings you so much happiness, and +1 intrigue, because we all know that cat owners are a bit more clever than everyone else (hey, it’s science!).

dd1.png

However, most things can become troublesome in excess, even your love for felines. In every cat owner’s life there comes a time when you ask yourself if you shouldn’t get just one more. At some point, the answer is probably no, at least if you don’t want to scare off all of your friends and repulse the courtiers.

dd2.png

Unless you want to become even sneakier, that is. Then go ahead and become a Crazy Cat Lady, or a Crazy Cat Lord, if that’s how you identify.

At first thought, one might think that cats would be a very insignificant aspect of a medieval ruler’s life, however, when the Plague comes around to visit this changes drastically. Most of you probably know that the Black Death was likely spread by fleas on rats. Sadly this fact is unknown to ye olde peasant, and when people start to die, some of them might point fingers to our furry protectors. Believe it or not, there are some people who do not like cats. It’s crazy, I know, but trust me on this. How will you deal with their growing fears? Do remember, if you don’t have cats, you’ll have plenty of rats…

dd3.png

This sneak peak of cats is all you’ll get for now. Don’t worry though, The Reaper’s Due is out on the 25th of August and then you can experience cats for yourself in all their whiskered glory. Next week Darkrenown will talk about more assorted features. Now I need to get back to scripting, there’re still some cat-related subjects which need further exploration… Adieu!
 
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Rationalsanity

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Wait, wasn't the dislike of cats mostly a thing among the peasants and folk faith? IIRC, the Catholic Church's stance at the time was that witchcraft and other ill omens did not exist.
 
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lordofzwergs

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I think your way of communicating is a bit offensive!
I know you try to be funny, but I actually feel you are giving me "the finger" here - I as a customer ask a question - I have the idea that cats were pet animals in Egypt, but was first really introduced to Europe as a pet in the 15-1600 perhaps - so it is a legit question, and you as a person from Paradox act like this?
I don't get it... It feels like you think you are superior when writing like that.

And sorry, it is not because I sit curled in the corner right now crying - and I can get through it, don't worry - I just want to tell you that the way you communicate is not very "customer-friendly" in my eyes.

Yes, you did sit in the corner and cry. You were very clearly hurt by those words. And that's just sad. These people are game developers, but not your shoulder to cry on. It is not their responsibility to baby mommy's special snowflake. The devs didn't even make fun of you in any way. You just got pissy when they did not google a query which you could have done in literal seconds. You need to get a grip on reality, because where you are now is far off of the mark.
 
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The_Meme_Man

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But can indians and africans have tigers and lions as pet cats?
Weren't lions extinct by then in Western and Eastern Africa?


EDIT Scratch that, just looked up and found out that they indeed exist.
 

EnvyDemon

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maybe even medals for cats. Just as medals given to message birds in ww1

The cats are only hanged for treason in WWI
 

Rubidium

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You were replying to a comment about world depiction and the claim that fantasy settings benefits from being built in such a way (and my opinion about the good effect it would have on CK2). That was the reason for that paragraph and the source of it is George himself. To argue against that is to argue against George's very own reasoning, so using his own creations is probably not the best approach...

For being someone who is pointing out to other's what they're missing, you are missing things quite well yourself.
But the Middle Ages (and any other period of time) weren't entirely dark and serious! People laughed, kept pets and went about their lives just like today. Depicting it as a period of constant seriousness is in itself a failure of world building (and as noted, a failure Martin emphatically doesn't fall prey to in his own work). The image of the Middle Ages as a period of overwhelming darkness and depression owes more to later Renaissance scholars than it does to reality; people are people.

And while I can't comment on Martin's reasoning (I'm not sure which interviews you're talking about specifically, as he has given many over the years, and has said all sorts of different things), it certainly is valid to point out that Martin, like essentially every other author, has mixed in less serious moments to lighten what would otherwise be a constant stream of depression.
 
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Ashagar

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Wait, wasn't the dislike of cats mostly a thing among the peasants and folk faith? IIRC, the Catholic Church's stance at the time was that witchcraft and other ill omens did not exist.

With the exception of one Pope Georgry the iX who condemned cats yes and was one of the few medieval popes who seemed spent more times being nasty to jews instead of trying to protect them from the general population. The Catholic Church as a whole viewed witchcraft as pagan superstition and delusion to be stomped out and generally made a point to shut down witch hunts whenever they got wind of them.
 
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I wonder if there are ferrets, I know Europeans commonly used ferrets for hunting certain small game especially rabbits and moles, they even made laws to try to prevent peasants form using ferrets to hunt. Europeans also used ferrets to control rodent population specially around food storage sites, something that ferrets were imported to the Americas and various European colonies to do as well in the colonial period.
 

Rubidium

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+1 to intrigue for owning a cat? How is someone who is willing to scoop the poop of an animal on a daily basis more intriguing? Never mind, they probably didn't have cat liter back then.
It's the Middle Ages; you were lucky to get people to scoop up their own poop. At least cats have the decency to bury theirs without prompting. Now if you could just get them to stop leaving the remains of small rodents at your feet whenever they feel particularly generous...
 
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