CK2 Dev Diary #61: The Dragon Throne

[Em Ay Ef]

will the Western Protectorate be able to break it off with China and become its own independent thing?

 

[riadach]

Just to remind you all, great minds think alike and fools seldom differ:

An off-map China which functions like a pope establishing tributaries and whose levies can be raised like a holy order when its tributaries are under attack?

Posted in May

 

[Roxas15]

I hope the chinese empire wont be conquered by mongols every game. i wonder how they integrate the mongol events into this dlc.

 

[Aztlantix]

Can player become ruler of this protectorate? I would really love to conquer land in the name of the dragon

 

[Seven Sulivin]

Hello folks!

The Swedish summer vacations are drawing to a close and I’m back and eager to talk some more Crusader Kings! What better way to kick off the end of summer than by revealing the theme of the next expansion? Yes my friends, it’s China! Now, before you get all emotional one way or the other, we’re not actually going to expand the map farther east. We considered doing that, long and hard, but eventually decided on a different approach that would not strain performance and stability beyond reason. As I mentioned in Dev Diary #51, it bothers me that the eastern edge of the map just cuts off in such an unnatural way. Playing in the Orient, you should always feel like you’re in the shadow of the Dragon. It should be an interesting and dynamic region right in the center of the Old World. So, we came up with the idea of adding China as a political entity even though you cannot actually see most of its territory.

View attachment 290299

There is a new screen you can open up, which, if you’re within range of China, allows you to interact with the Emperor in various interesting ways. China can grant many wonderful boons if you’re in the emperor’s good graces, but, depending on the current status and policy of the Dragon Throne, the emperor can also decide you’d better show some respect and become a tributary state. When there is turmoil in China, displaced or fleeing armies can arrive on the map and cause all kinds of trouble. China can even seize and rule actual provinces, but the emperor leaves the governing of such areas to the Governor of the Western Protectorate (or, to be a stickler, the “Protectorate General to Pacify the West”.) Potentially, this on-map part of China can grow enormously powerful, but you should not have to worry too much as long as you enjoy the emperor’s grace…

That’s going to be all for now. I’m sure you have a million questions, but you’ll have to wait for the upcoming dev diaries.

Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our CK2 livestreams between 16 to 18:00 CET!

It'll do for now, but when CK III comes out in 10 years, I hope we'll get China on the map.

 

[Temudhun Khan]

By the way, Mandate of Heaven for EU IV, an upcoming East Asia/Pacific dlc for HoI4 and now this? 2017 is trully China year for Paradox.

 

[Woifee]

Is it possible for any Ruler, not only Mongols, to Invade China and set up a new Dynasty? Would be awesome.

Also a reformed germanic China would be awesome in EU4. I hope there are a lot of fun and interesting Interactions to go with.

Also, please, make it a game rule.

 

[Avil]

Yeah, it would be lovely if Aztecs was a western fantasy version of China of the east. It also would be such a good demonstration of mechanic without need to be on the east side.

 

[DominusNovus]

Will Chinese religions be represented?

 

[sreckom92]

Is my good standing with the Emperor going to influence my profits from the Silk Road?
Are there going to be some changes to the Silk Road? I'd be happy with some events at least.

 

[Chaoslord48]

This seems like the best way they could have brought in China without bringing massive lag to the game. I am very excited to become one of the dragon thrones most loyal tributaries.

 

[hyrathon]

Actually in ck3 you can introduce more entities to balance the game and make the player more focused

 

[Chaoslord48]

Is there any chance the Silk Road will be enhanced to be more of a target for people to control? or perhaps some events around it?

 

[CMDR_HERNE]

I like this way of introducing China into the game rather than physically on the map as there is less chance of mucking the game up.
But lets just see what's in the patch along side it before considering buying the actual dlc.

But I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited for the possibilities with the EU4 converter. For this is the main reason I would be interested in this dlc. Which is another reason why I'm intrigued what Chinese interactions will be included with the patch.

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

Very interesting!

I have a suggestion for you guys to add in the next patch: when you marry an already pregnant woman (which has the trait icon, meaning EVERYONE looking at her knows she is carrying a child), please remove the event giving you an enourmous malus towards her. Your character already knew she was pregnant and married her anyway - why would he be mad at her giving birth to another man's kid, then?
I believe if you're playing a pregnant lady and marry a guy, he will get a similar event. Likewise, makes no sense to have him mad at you when you already displayed a bigger belly when he walked down the aisle...

I assume actual China will be included in CK3, then? This is a little tame.

An intriguing choice, though understandable. I hope CK3 will be able to handle China and East Asia.

Anyway, I can't wait to see what the mods will do with this new mechanics.

It'll do for now, but when CK III comes out in 10 years, I hope we'll get China on the map.

Completely agree! An EUIV map with only the old world would be hella cool

 

[riadach]

I know there was a dev diary on tributaries before the break, but I think this means we will have a diplomatic option to pursue tributaries in the next patch.

 

[karl2025]

"Is this system going to be used to give depth to the Sunset Invasion DLC?" he asked, with hope in his eyes.

 

[Foreign Alien]

I called it. The "large" "last" expansion, aka what this thing was originally supposed to be, was China. They backed out at some point because reasons and this is the compromise we're getting. It's something but I'm sure a lot of people will be upset that

a) they're still doing an expansion on China and not x thing they wanted

b) they're not doing China the way China fans would have wanted

The next expansion was originally going to be a "large" expansion and the "last" major expansion for CK2. However a lot has happened since that dev diary.

Doomdark reneged on the "large" aspect of the next DLC in a stream, so it is just going to be average sized now.

Also comments by others like Johan make CK2's end have made CK2's end an uncertainty. At this point we can't really assume when CK2 will end.

My guess is that they were originally going to make the next and last expansion the "China" expansion, which is why they worked on Tibet . However at some point they realized it was too ambitious and scrapped the idea. Hence why the DLC is now normal sized rather than large and we get Tibet as free patch material.

I also pointed out all the hints and crap Doomdark was saying about China prior to his 180 degree view change at PDXCon. Nobody wanted to believe me. Turned out I was right and his entire "where CK2 is going" dev diary and "new unexplored areas" was China.

Now not only are we not getting crusader mechanics, or other core features to flesh out the game, we're getting a half assed China expansion.

Thanks a lot, Paradox community.

 

[dulahan]

I'm disappointed because I hate random horde armies that you can't do anything about. they just pop up and do their thing. I don't play "paint the map" games, rather more reactive attempts at realism, and that's in many ways worse.

Plus if you can't do anything about them, and they keep spawning, it's just no fun.

So what this reads like to me i s something that's going to mean MORE random large armies marching through my lands with no way to answer them. At least ifm I want to play Central Asian powers. So it conversely makes the game in the region less interesting to me.

 

[Castorem]

It's going to be annoying, if I'm a huge empire which expands east and I'm going to be at odds with the emperor and they'll send invasions and such to attack me without me being able to respond as there is still an illogical border between us. They are basically magically protected, but can be interacted with, not sure I'm a big fan. But I guess it's better than nothing.