CK2 Dev Diary #42: The Ever Changing Changelog

[Red Earth]

I think this is the only game where a change log includes a change that starts with "when eating your prisoners..."

Check out this Twitter:
Take a look at The Strange Log (@TheStrangeLog): https://twitter.com/TheStrangeLog?s=09
Crusader Kings 2 makes it in on several occasions.
Edit: Here's one;
https://twitter.com/TheStrangeLog/status/810919541991735297

 

[NewbieOne]

- "Cultural Bonds" no longer causes an alliance, but instead allows other independent characters of the conqueror's culture to join them in defensive wars. The AI is likely to do this if their opinion of the defender is positive and they're not busy with wars of their own

Smart!

- Allowed vassals to press de jure claims against their fellow vassals again (though the AI won't)

Too bad. Outright, hard scripting blocks impoverish the game. It would be better to come up with a way to prevent AI from abusing the feature instead.

- You'll now lose some Threat if dying causes you to lose land

Another smart change!

- When the holder of a viceroyalty dies, they'll now be replaced in wars by their regular heir, not their liege

Not smart at all, though. I fully realize you're in a hard place with that, but some random count or duke who didn't inherit his dad's viceroy position has no business being involved a war far above his paygrade, which he is bound to lose.

Imagine, hypothetically, some sort of war declared locally by a historical Ban of Croatia without involving the King of Hungary. He dies in the meantime, his son is down to ruling some castle on the coast of Dalmatia. There's no chance such a war would have been seen as e.g. a Šubić war instead of a Croatian war, to be continued (or not!) by whomever gets the appointment next.

… Or some German noble in charge of entire Burgundy or Provence or Lotharingia, or a Lord Deputy of Ireland etc.

From a history/realism POV neither a duty nor a right for an elective monarch's private heir to continue a war for a state makes any sense. Nor does it make sense for that particular side of the war to be reduced to a county or duchy while the kingdom (viceroyalty) is out.

Heck, the viceroy of Croatia could be some random Hungarian count from Sloviaka, should his kids get/have to continue what was a Crotian war?

It makes far more sense to devolve the war to the liege or pass it on to the next viceroy.

Perhaps you could try something like an immediate pause and popup upon the viceroy's death, so that dialogue tells you as the liege that you need to choose to either appoint a new viceroy immediately or handle the war yourself as the actual holder of the title.

If not, then perhaps end the war inconclusively, because inflicting the artificial loss of a kingdom-scale war on a random duke or count isn't an elegant solution.

Inappropriate inheritance of various stuff by blood heirs of elective/appointed characters (such as doges, other elective monarchs) and occasionally continuation of kingdom-scale wars by demoted rulers (now dukes or counts, having to fight backbreaking wars they have no interest in without being the king any more) is, honestly speaking, already a bit of a large problem in CK2 that needs to be minimized, not enlarged.

- The "Ask to Leave Court" diplomatic interaction will now cause the character's spouses to leave as well, and has the same requirements of the spouses as the character being asked to leave

Good.

- Increased the duration of the "War Taxes" modifier to five years (up from three), for completing the "Build a War Chest" Ambition

Yeah, wars typically take longer than 3 years minus prep time, 5 is more like it.

- Overthrow Ruler will now give the ruler a claim on the title if they accept the demands

Interesting.

- No longer possible to usurp titles from the vassals of a revolting vassal

Good.

- Capitals can now be moved every 50 years rather than once per lifetime.

I think a new king shouldn't be restricted like that. It's going to cause some problems upon inheritance by already landed characters. Possibly mitigated by always being allowed to move the capital to the scripted traditional capital of your top title.

- Merchant Republics with too few patricians will no longer draft people who are heir to a title to become patricians, since this risks disinheriting them

Potentially not as smart as it seems at first glance. It's generally better to become a patrician — ruler of one of the top 5 families of the entire republic (plus sometimes a county or two) — than inherit a vassal barony. A good thing, though, if republics can't draft noble heirs from outside the republic.

No longer possible to ask to join a war against someone you have a non-aggression pact with

Again, looks reasonable at first glance, but ramifications are that you won't be able to take part in family disputes. Human inclination is to take part in family disputes rather than stay out.

- The "make my court/vassals speak English" events can now trigger if one's a vassal of Britannia rather than England, and can trigger for the king/emperor as well, not just their vassals

Good if you're Anglo-Saxon or Norman, but is it proofed against weird results for Welsh or Breton Britannias?

- The prestige you get from being a consort now scales with the tier of your spouse.

You mean it actually didn't before? Wow.

- The capital duchy of a title, if held by the title holder, will under elective/tanistry law now always follow that title's succession, even if your heir is not playable for you. Counties, baronies, and other duchies will still revert to primogeniture in that case

Capital as in the duchy in which the 'traditional capital' is located (e.g. Valois for Paris) or capital duchy as in your primary ducal title or the duchy in which your current capital is located (as is the case with the 'capital duchy' used for bonus levies)?

For countries that don't have a clear traditional capital (scripted) it would make sense to have the capital of the kingdom to whatever's the capital of whatever duke gets elected next.

- No longer possible to appoint someone to your council when they're part of a faction that's sent you an ultimatum; this could be exploited to have them leave the faction, giving you an easy win in the faction war, or invalidating it entirely

Good.

- When non-primary war participants die, their primary heir will now stay in the war if the inherited title ends up as their primary title, and it'd be possible for them to ask to join the war, or be called in by the war leader

FINALLY!!!!111one. But seriously, good job.

- No longer possible to join or start factions while you have a truce with your liege

Sensible. Though how about awarding truce-breaker penalties instead, in case it goes to war and perhaps even in the case of an ultimatum if you're the faction leader?

My reasoning here is that as players we know factioning potentially leads to war but things aren't so clear-cut from a non-meta perspective. (And in any case, factions could use a tweak to become more political/diplomatic and less military in tone.)

 

[Meneth]

I think a new king shouldn't be restricted like that. It's going to cause some problems upon inheritance by already landed characters. Possibly mitigated by always being allowed to move the capital to the scripted traditional capital of your top title.

It's reset upon ruler change still. It's mainly to not be an issue for immortal rulers.

Capital as in the duchy in which the 'traditional capital' is located (e.g. Valois for Paris) or capital duchy as in your primary ducal title or the duchy in which your current capital is located (as is the case with the 'capital duchy' used for bonus levies)?

Traditional capital. If none is defined, that's simply the first duchy within the title.

 

[AntZudan]

A great list but please reconsider this: "No longer possible to appoint someone to your council when they're part of a faction that's sent you an ultimatum; this could be exploited to have them leave the faction, giving you an easy win in the faction war, or invalidating it entirely"
The game needs more of these types of things not less. To represent those sneaky littlefinger moments. You just need to balance it by adding a chance dissatisfied vassals will join the faction revolt after the banners have been called (eg that guy you just kicked off the council...)

 

[Kalderus]

Will you please consider adding an option when using the carousing focus to:

a) invite all vassals to carousing

b) invite all court members to carousing; and/or

c) invite all realm members (might be too much considering the number of requests it would generate and the subsequent popups)

I enjoy using the carousing focus to lose stressed/depressed, gain Game Master/Socializer, or just befriend vassals/old rivals, but every time you want to go carousing, it's a constant chore clicking through potentially dozens of vassals/courtiers/family members/ random Game Masters in your realm.

In addition to this, another feature that would be welcome to go along with this would be an option to search characters by certain traits, as currently in order to find Game Masters or anyone with a particular trait you need to find requires either hunting through characters with high numbers in appropriate stats, or just scanning for the general shape and colour of icons.

 

[NickFeyR]

Just release the DLC, the mods are dependent on it, it's basically the lifeline of this game.

 

[Serenity84]

In addition to this, another feature that would be welcome to go along with this would be an option to search characters by certain traits,

You can type the trait name into the box at the top to filter characters

 

[ruzen]

- Made so the prisoner icon is now clickable and takes you to the imprisoner

Any plans to expand that feature to showing leading armies or council missions?

 

[Red Tsar]

So is 50 years to change a capital only or can you change it after your heir takes over as well?

 

[Ben84]

Any plans to expand that feature to showing leading armies or council missions?

Hopefully! Like I comment before, we need a better linking system.... e.g. converted province in the outliner news tab and a lot more

 

[Dracko81]

I think a new king shouldn't be restricted like that. It's going to cause some problems upon inheritance by already landed characters. Possibly mitigated by always being allowed to move the capital to the scripted traditional capital of your top title.

Where does it say other rules are changed. The 50 years rule is in addition to the current rules which means immortal characters can change capitals later. You can always move your capital to your historical capital.

Good if you're Anglo-Saxon or Norman, but is it proofed against weird results for Welsh or Breton Britannias?

The rules for the events only trigger if you are independent England, so Britannia doesn't have the events trigger which means that English culture can never trigger under some circumstances.

Will you please consider adding an option when using the carousing focus to:

a) invite all vassals to carousing

b) invite all court members to carousing; and/or

c) invite all realm members (might be too much considering the number of requests it would generate and the subsequent popups)

I enjoy using the carousing focus to lose stressed/depressed, gain Game Master/Socializer, or just befriend vassals/old rivals, but every time you want to go carousing, it's a constant chore clicking through potentially dozens of vassals/courtiers/family members/ random Game Masters in your realm.

In addition to this, another feature that would be welcome to go along with this would be an option to search characters by certain traits, as currently in order to find Game Masters or anyone with a particular trait you need to find requires either hunting through characters with high numbers in appropriate stats ,or just scanning for the general shape and colour of icons.

Carousing isn't meant to be a feast, it is supposed to be to develop friendships with someone. Inviting large numbers of people actually provides no bonus and actually means you can not get anything out of the carousing.

 

[GregoryK64]

- No longer possible to join or start factions while you have a truce with your liege

That makes sense. It also makes sense that based on current communication and diplomacy limitations already established that characters who are in seclusion during an epidemic should not be able to participate in factions. Any chance of that getting implemented?

 

[Kalderus]

Carousing isn't meant to be a feast, it is supposed to be to develop friendships with someone. Inviting large numbers of people actually provides no bonus and actually means you can not get anything out of the carousing.

Very often you aren't so much interested in developing friendships with particular people, but in just inviting enough people who will actually accept the invitation so you can carouse as quickly as possible in order to lose depressed and stressed.

Opinion is supposed to be a large factor in determining who will/won't attend (and presumably the socializer/game master/hedonist/drunkard traits) but it still feels somewhat random who will and won't attend your feast (yes indeed, it is a feast, the character modifier even reads "preparing a small feast") and I've occasionally encountered scenarios where no one/only one person accepted my invitation and the feast was cancelled.

Since you can never be certain who will accept the invitation, it would be nice to have an option to simply invite all vassals and hopefully befriend a random one of the few who will attend.

 

[Dracko81]

Very often you aren't so much interested in developing friendships with particular people, but in just inviting enough people who will actually accept the invitation so you can carouse as quickly as possible in order to lose depressed and stressed.

Opinion is supposed to be a large factor in determining who will/won't attend (and presumably the socializer/game master/hedonist/drunkard traits) but it still feels somewhat random who will and won't attend your feast (yes indeed, it is a feast, the character modifier even reads "preparing a small feast") and I've occasionally encountered scenarios where no one/only one person accepted my invitation and the feast was cancelled.

Since you can never be certain who will accept the invitation, it would be nice to have an option to simply invite all vassals and hopefully befriend a random one of the few who will attend.

Except you carouse at the same time regardless of attendees. Inviting more people won't make it happen faster.

Small feast is not the same as a feast. Having two people attending the event results in nothing more than having one person attend. If your only concern is getting a yes, invite your spouse or child.

There is really no reason to mass invite to carousing.

 

[Ben84]

Will you please consider adding an option when using the carousing focus to:

a) invite all vassals to carousing

b) invite all court members to carousing; and/or

c) invite all realm members (might be too much considering the number of requests it would generate and the subsequent popups)

Agree!
Totally love it when micromanaged inviting 80 people to carousal in 30minutes and 50 VIPs accept (always have a huuuuuuge family) and than a war is called:
" Sorry Mylord, no time to drink and feast. Just go to the war instead. "
Love it!

Please please give us a matrix interface something like:
....................................Court:...........Demesne:........Realm:
Family members:..........|_|....................|_|..................|_|
Vassals:............................|_|....................|_|..................|_|
Courtiers:......................|_|....................|_|..................|_|
Horses &.......................|_|....................|_|..................|_|
other crazy people:
|_| only people willing to accept invitation
|_| lunatics only

Or a personal secretary with diplomatic action on him/her to do so.

And also please consider to add a checkbox in the vassal tab : X hide baron-level vassals

 

[Viridianus]

The capital duchy of a title, if held by the title holder, will under elective/tanistry law now always follow that title's succession, even if your heir is not playable for you. Counties, baronies, and other duchies will still revert to primogeniture in that case.

Btw, it would be verrry nice if capital duchy (both de-facto and de-jure if applicable), de-jure capital county (the "traditional capital") and also the capital kingdom of an empire if applicable were somehow shown in the title's menu.