Greetings, fellow medievalists!

'Tis Thursday, and time for another entry in my ongoing chronicle of fabulousness. You have asked of technology, so today, being the just and kind ruler that I am, I shall speak of technological advancements.

The technology system is, in fact, quite similar to the one in Crusader Kings. There are three main areas of technological advancement; Military, Economy and Culture. Each of these categories contains eight different technologies. For example, in the Military category, we have things like Castles, Bows, Tactics, and Light Armor. Every province in the game has its own level of advancement for all technologies (level 0 to V.) So Thrake might have Castles III, Legalism II, etc. Technology levels control what types of buildings can be built in the county holdings, the quality of the levies raised there, and many other things.



Technology tends to spread to neighboring counties like in Crusader Kings. You can increase the rate of innovation by focusing on one technology per category - also like in the original game. However, you now also have the option of sending one of your councillors to a county to increase the rate of innovation. For example, your Marshal can research military technology in one of your counties, and the Spymaster can study technology in a foreign province, which might spread its advancements to your capital.



The three technology categories are each associated with a character attribute, Military with Martial, Economy with Stewardship, and Culture with Diplomacy. All three are also helped by the Learning attribute (which is new to Crusader Kings II and the primary attribute of the Lord Spiritual). The rate of innovation thus depends on your ruler's skills (and those of the councillors and spouse.)

Until next time!

 

[Brannart]

Very happy to see a similarity between CK1 and CK2 here.

 

[Nuril]

So~.. if the Count of Öland is now a Chief does this mean you've changed Öland from Catholic to Ásatrú/Norse now instead (as I pointed out with the discrepancies)? Or just ruled by a pagan whilst the province is Catholic in the game? What about Småland/Södermanland?

 

[Brent15]

I may have missed this somewhere, but I've seen it alluded to twice. Does a spouse effect stats without a court position now?

 

[InboxMadness]

I may have missed this somewhere, but I've seen it alluded to twice. Does a spouse effect stats without a court position now?

it has been confirmed by devs that spouses give half of their stats

 

[unmerged(226921)]

I'm glad this system was kept. While it's not perfect, it's far better than some feudal lord declaring that the scientists of his realm should begin research on a giant machine that will be named a Trebuchet.

Regards,

Lord Scientist of the Realm

 

[InboxMadness]

I wish there were travelling polymaths who give research boosts to their patrons, though. They were influential people who often got involved in other court affairs and politics too.

 

[Jasonkp]

I wish there were travelling polymaths who give research boosts to their patrons, though. They were influential people who often got involved in other court affairs and politics too.

CK has events that kind of represent that. Family chronicles, paintings, etc., I expect even more events like that to be in this one.

 

[Vladislav]

I wonder what techs fall under the three "infrastructure" economy techs. I notice that categories like Power, Mining, and Education are absent, so maybe they've been combined into those tech categories.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

I take it that a Marshall working on tech improvements in one province can't be leading an army elsewhere, as per your move to having characters on the map? And the same for the Spymaster etc?

Is it possible to have major maritime trade routes represented by having the provinces adjacent for purposes of tech spread, even if they're not adjacent for purposes of troop movement? And what about islands like Britain, how will tech spread there?

 

[Boshko]

What I like about this is that it seems to imply that the main limiting factor of having a large domain is having too many things that need to be done by you and your courtiers on the province level and not enough people to do it. That would make me feel more like someone who needs to delegate stuff to counts than someone who needs to appoint counts to avoid going crazy.

 

[Orinsul]

Is Religious Stringency gone or merged into something?

 

[Communazi]

I always wondered how research functioned in CK1.

i.e. Am I slowly accruing points towards the next level of castles, what determines the rate, and if the next level 'spreads' to my capital, does my research accrual default back to zero to begin researching the next level?

 

[Wezqu]

I always wondered how research functioned in CK1.

i.e. Am I slowly accruing points towards the next level of castles, what determines the rate, and if the next level 'spreads' to my capital, does my research accrual default back to zero to begin researching the next level?

You don't really get points toward the tech. You will have a % chance to discovere the tech. It will be effected by your advisors, your wife and your stats. It will also be effected by how many other areas around you have learned the tech already. So if someone next to you have the tech you have bigger chance to discover it. Technology research doesn't work the same way in CK than it works on the other Paradox games. It won't be set amount of points to finish the tech but about % chance to finish the tech during the year. That was how it worked on the first one and it seems to quite the same on this one.

 

[Nick B II]

Research is totally random.

The odds of discovering a tech are increased if you've got a good adviser, and the right province improvements, but it's all event based.

This was fully moddable, so if you want to see/change the conditions you'd just open advances_discovery.txt and advances_spread.txt in a text editor.

Nick

 

[steveh11]

As I (dimly) recall, the problem was that in CK1 you couldn't do much to affect the rate of spread of a new invention among your own demesnes (or whatever they were called in that). I'm rather hoping you, as the player, can do something to speed up that rate in CK2.

 

[Meanmanturbo]

I take it that a Marshall working on tech improvements in one province can't be leading an army elsewhere, as per your move to having characters on the map? And the same for the Spymaster etc?

Is it possible to have major maritime trade routes represented by having the provinces adjacent for purposes of tech spread, even if they're not adjacent for purposes of troop movement? And what about islands like Britain, how will tech spread there?

In CK 1 there were "trade routes" for tech spread. Invisible connections over seas. You could only find them by the game files though. Roads and harbors mad tech spread (and disease spread!) more likely. Also, every province had some hidden effect on the chance to discover some techs.

 

[Jazthesentinel]

I take it that a Marshall working on tech improvements in one province can't be leading an army elsewhere, as per your move to having characters on the map? And the same for the Spymaster etc?
...

I suppose so. Still, that's another good question. Or perhaps he will be able to do something, but at a reduced rate?

 

[yellowbiz]

I feel like an ass for mentioning it, but there´s a typo in the second screenshot.
"Send you spymater..."

 

[Zakuno2]

So it's a light handed way of researching. An influence system. This will be an interesting change from vicky 2. God I am so stoked for this game.

 

[Jasonkp]

I feel like an ass for mentioning it, but there´s a typo in the second screenshot.
"Send you spymater..."

Mmmm, that's delicious. Do you put ketchup or ranch on your spymaters?

I prefer to cover mine in schadenfreude.