CK2 Dev Diary #76 - Post Release

[rageair]

Greetings!

Jade Dragon has been released, and work has started on a post-release patch. Our QA are scouring the Bug Forum as I’m writing this, while our Programmers and Content Designers are hard at work fixing the issues that has been found! All in all it’s been a very good release, and the team is very happy with how things went.

You can expect the patch to arrive within three weeks (possibly a bit sooner), so remember to report any and all issues you’re experiencing before then, again - in the Bug Forum!

In addition to bugfixes, the next patch will add a few things that you’ve requested… I won’t tell you what they are yet though, it’ll be a secret for now.

Here are some of the more severe issues we’re currently working on fixing:

• The Ruler Designer not working in MP.
• China getting the wrong name if you switch bookmarks a lot before starting the game.
• Ruler Designing a Nomad causing a game over.
• Some Historical Wars not working.
• As well as many more less severe issues.

May the Emperor look upon you with grace!

 

[rageair]

Is there any hope for hot fix before actual patch?

No, we generally only hotfix when there's an issue present that significantly affect most players, i.e. if there is a frequent crash, achievements not working at all, DLC's not being recognized, or similar - fortunately we have no such issues for this patch.
This will be a normal patch, which will go through our verification process.

 

[Meneth]

Hopefully you are able to reproduce and fix that revolting vassal independence thing; dam you duke of Flanders.

Is there any hope for hot fix before actual patch?

If what you mean is that your new liege near instantly transfers you back to your old liege, then yes, that'll be fixed in the patch as long as it passes verification.

There's no current plans to do a hotfix, as no critical issues have been discovered. Given that no such issue has been discovered by now, it seems highly unlikely one will, since to be critical it'd have to be at least somewhat common.

 

[Meneth]

No, I meant this.

Bummer, I consider that bug to be game breaking, because it pretty much doubles the border gore.

Sounds like a rare but significant issue. If someone is able to come up with a way to reproduce it, it is a likely candidate for the patch. Without a way to reproduce it however, fixing it will likely be near impossible.

 

[Meneth]

We got conquered by the Seljuks. Now I'm a Duke, and whenever I try to become independant, the Padisha Sultan immediately transfers myself back into my former Sultanate

That issue we've fixed internally and should be in the next patch; it's not the same as the other user describes.

 

[Meneth]

I might have expressed myself poorly. I am a Duke under a Sultan under the Padisha Sultan. Buuuut anyways, if the issue is fixed then it is fine. I will blob internaly in my sultan's realm and wait for the patch to break free

My understanding is that you're a duke under a king, who is under an emperor. You declare and achieve independence from the king, becoming a direct vassal of the emperor.
The emperor then makes you a vassal of the king once more.

If I'm right in that understanding, that's now fixed; the AI will no longer transfer you to anyone once you've managed to declare independence from a vassal of a vassal. At least until your ruler dies.

 

[rageair]

The Western Protectorate should be nerfed.
From what I see, it has a tendency to make everyone and their mother as tributaries, even when completely out of China's diplo range...

Are there any plans to make the Western Protectorate less aggressive? They can easily make tributaries out of realms relatively far west and in India south. It's a bit much

I think the aggressiveness and power of the western protectorate must be looked at. No gavelkind and being able to hold cities makes it much too powerfull which is I believe the reason for the constant tributary wars and massive empire it errects.
Maybe the protectorate should have -80% income or so as the emperor takes most of it?

The holder of the Western Protectorate literally has no war declaration AI - every single war it declares is handled via script. A non-expansionist China will want to have no more than three tributaries, and they will not try to make tributaries of any realm larger than 10-15 counties. It will look for targets within its diplomatic range, and will only make tributaries that either border the WP or an existing tributary, or are in the region called 'Chinese Region of Influence' which you can find by pressing the tiny green button at the top of the province view. It will also try really hard to avoid border gore, regardless of the CB its using.

Another interesting fact is that the more troops the Western protectorate can raise by themselves, the less troops they will bring in from the Chinese Mainland.

If China is Expansionist (something which is weighted to not happen more than 2-3 times per game) they will want more tributaries, and will start subjugating realms proper. Note that Independence factions are always available against the WP, regardless of laws or standing, so them actually keeping vast amounts land will often not last.

What happened was that in Charlemagne scenario Karloman died (quite early this time), and Karl transferred almost entire Francia to Aquitaine and Flanders. Initially I thought it was so that AI can use "ducal exploit" (you know - the one when AI transfers you a vassal making you very happy and then rips you off by making them a duke without making you unhappy) at will, but 20 years later most of the territories (entire duchies like Anjou, etc) remain in possession of the initial beneficiaries of this absurd behavior.

The AI is over its over its vassal limit and needs to transfer vassals to get back to the limit, there's nothing strange about that. Before this patch, the AI in this situation would literally transfer vassals completely randomly - the only thing this patch changed in this regard is that they now try to keep vassal borders contiguous. In your specific case, the Francian Kingdoms were united before Charlemagne had time to create any duchies, which causes him to transfer counts to the existing dukes.

 

[rageair]

And yet we still see the Protectorate interacting with Africa and Northern Europe rather often. Why?

Saying that they do this 'often' is hyperbole, we didn't want to make it impossible for them to conquer their way west, but they won't actively seek to do so. The diplomatic range of China is the same as any other character, plus the extent of the Silk Road. This means that if they conquer land, their range will increase slightly, though they will still not attack a realm that doesn't border them or one of their tributaries. This means that if they attack northern Europe, they've managed to conquer a path to there - the only place in the game where they will attack realms that don't explicitly border them is in the 'Chinese Region of Influence' region, as mentioned before.

It is the most likely for China to extend their reach into Europe or Africa if they win a war against a large nation, i.e. a successful Nomad horde, though this requires them to be expansionist. If someone has a China that is both Expansionist AND in a Golden Age, this would not be an unexpected scenario. This is a very rare combination though, and shouldn't even occur every game. Note that if China conquers a realm that has exclaves (border gore) that will extend their reach. Realms having that level of border gore is a separate problem entirely though.

I suppose the Protectorate should be adjusted to favor closer neighbors unless provoked.

They do favor closer realms already, they actually favor closer realms to the point where they sometimes leave certain targets that provoke them alone (i.e., characters raiding them) just because they want to attack something closer to their existing borders.

I could have sworn I've seen a lot more than that even when non-expansionist

They will keep existing tributaries even after they stop being expansionist. It's also not impossible for them to go for more than three small tributaries, though they will not actively pursue them.

This still lets them chain attack range pretty far

Under optimal conditions that is true, though they need to be expansionist to tributize the really large realms.

 

[Meneth]

No dev diary today, I'm afraid: https://twitter.com/CrusaderKings/status/935140149150846976
There will be one on Monday next week.

 

[Meneth]

Has there been any talk of a time frame for the fix?

The upcoming patch. Last word on that was two weeks ago, when we said we hoped to have it out within three weeks.
I'd recommend reading today's dev diary when it comes out.