Things are getting busy at the office with the upcoming release of Europa Universalis IV, but as has been said before, we're still very much committed to the continued support and further expansion of Crusader Kings II. With Doomdark currently Down Under, Johan asked me to put together a short dev diary highlighting some of the current stuff we've been working on.

Patch 1.11:
1.11 will be deployed next week, and the new patch will include a few features that should make dealing with plots a bit easier. After hatching a plot, you can now tell the game to automatically invite all plotters who are willing to join your scheme. No more having to browse through the Potential Plotters list and individually sending requests to every single character who wants to join!

Also, you can now set the game to always demand that characters end their plots as soon as they come to your attention. Another handy addition is that you can now see at a glance which potential plotters can be won over to your side if they are bribed.

Among the other things added is a new Siege Leader trait (finally), a favorite IP table for the multiplayer menu and some additional support for modders.

Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV Converter:
Johan already posted a dev diary about the Converter last week in the Europa Universalis IV forum, and there is an interview with Groogy here that goes into some more detail. I don't have much to add except that we're pretty pleased with the result and it actually works better than we had anticipated when development began.

Customizer:
This is a smaller DLC on the scale of the Ruler Designer, but it's something that many have asked for. It will give players an easy way to customize several items in their games when they are already well underway.

You can have your character pay a visit to the barber, where their hairstyle or facial hair can be altered... within reason (no bearded women, sorry). Below you can see the new look I gave King Charles II the Not-So-Bald:

View attachment CKII_111_DD_The_Bald.jpg

You can rename any title held by you or your vassals:

View attachment CKII_111_DD_Northwest_Francia.jpg

Finally, if you feel the need to shake things up a bit, you can alter the name and shield of your dynasty:

View attachment CKII_111_DD_de_Poher.jpg

Hopefully this will tide you over for a while, until we're ready to tell you more about what the future will bring to Crusader Kings II.


Here are the highlights from the Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV Converter livestream with Johan & Doomdark!
[video=youtube;FWqQgp1Vh9U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWqQgp1Vh9U[/video]

You can find the full live-stream for the CK2 to EU4 converter here:
http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/b/438261345

ps. And you can pre-order Europa Universalis IV here:
http://www.europauniversalis4.com/buy

 

[Rozmarzony]

Can you stop...? It's annoying. We know you don't like DLCs. But without DLCs (or expansions like in EU3) CK2 wouldn't get 3 years of service.

I'm not against DLCs, i'm against unsupported DLC. Expanding ruler designer would hurt paradox so much that they have to create new dlc?

 

[MyNameIsOmali]

Yeah, accept 5$, then 10, 25, 100...

I might be reading your post wrong, but are you actually suggesting that by "accepting" $5 the evil corporate masterminds of Paradox will laugh manically and charge $10, then $25, etc. because they know people will pay for it? That is ridiculous. Sorry if I misread your post.

To other people, what is wrong with Paradox using DLC to FUND the continued development of the game? The employees need to be paid, and the studio needs to do more than just break even. They said two years of DLC. They could not possibly go for two years without some way of paying for it. I'm pretty sure that by charging $5 for the customizer, Groogy won't be able to go out an buy a Ferarri. It'll go towards developing the Secret Bear DLC obviously. And people stating that CKII wasn't finished at launch? Well, its Metacritic score was 82, so I'm not sure that that constitutes "unfinished." Again, when will it be done? And the balancing is pretty damn good right now, at least in the 1066 start. I have never seen the Golden Horde get further than Hungary, and that is not that much further than they got in real life.

About the patch itself, looks great. I'm probably more excited about the "invite all" to plot option more than anything else. (renaming countries is cool too, and being able to make sure all my characters have beards with the customizer will be worth it)

 

[al3xytp]

It would be cool if the barber is able to be a disguised assassin hired by a plotter
and try to kill you.

 

[WolfSnakeCaffer]

Are mods that expand the map incorporated into the converter?

 

[Zolotaya]

Are mods that expand the map incorporated into the converter?

As per the live-stream, the DD and the interview: yes and no. Some mods may need to adjust the converter tables to export properly.

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

.........
But t's not the ruler designer... The ruler designer is just to creat a start character. This is to customise your game ingame. Totaly different. Because it's circa as big as the Ruler Designer (Why did everyone like them so much? I think in this DLC is more content then there). So I think it will be 5 Euro/Dollar too.

As far as i remember it has not been advertised as such nor did we get the info on that....or at least it wasn't obvious.
I remember times when customising with an extra program wasnt differentiated as such. I don't see how it's totaly different.
Otherwise they should have made an RD for MP and one for singleplayer respectively.
What happened now seems to be common practice though nowadays. Whatever...the ones not happy will buy it on sale then.

 

[kraussda]

I'm not against DLCs, i'm against unsupported DLC. Expanding ruler designer would hurt paradox so much that they have to create new dlc?

If the majority of CK2 owners feel the same way as you, they won't buy the DLC and paradox won't make, or at least charge for, DLC like this in the future. If people are willing to pay for it, why would the company not charge for it*? This isn't some kind of morality issue. A company is offering a product for a price, if that price is too high for you, move on and don't buy that product.

*Once again this DOES NOT APPLY when a company withholds a key functionality of the core software in DLC which has not been the case with any DLC for CK2.

 

[Maximonium]

So we finally have a way to cut down on the burden of the plot system? About time.

I'm not gonna praise what took over a year and a half to do. Seriously, its about time, people have been calling to add a damn invite all button for ages, not to mention I'm sure any of the modders addressed the issues a long time ago. What's next, addressing the piss poor decadence system?

 

[Rozmarzony]

If the majority of CK2 owners feel the same way as you, they won't buy the DLC and paradox won't make, or at least charge for, DLC like this in the future. If people are willing to pay for it, why would the company not charge for it*? This isn't some kind of morality issue. A company is offering a product for a price, if that price is too high for you, move on and don't buy that product.

So my question for you. Why after specific DLC is released I need to wait until the next DLC is released, which comes with patch fixing bugs caused by previous DLC?
Because now for example west african attrition/byzantine sucession are bugged and they didn't released any hotfix for it...

I always thought patches comes no matter what, if there will be DLC or not.

 

[kraussda]

So my question for you. Why after specific DLC is released I need to wait until the next DLC is released, which comes with patch fixing bugs caused by previous DLC?
Because now for example west african attrition/byzantine sucession are bugged and they didn't released any hotfix for it...

I always thought patches comes no matter what, if there will be DLC or not.

Well, first off, paradox is in no way obligated to do bug fixing and mechanic tweaking patches at all. They do it for one reason: customers value it. Also, they work incredibly hard in order to make DLC's as modular as possible so that it minimizes bugs and issues for those that don't buy it. The fact that CK2 still gets free bug fixing and content expanding patches a year and a half after release is because people are willing to buy DLC.

You have two choices, the world as we have it, or a world in which CK2 1.0 is all we get and paradox goes on to work on another project. No company can afford to provide free content expansion and toolsets requiring nearly as much development as the core software they complement for free. If you personally do not want the DLC, don't buy it and appreciate the fact that all the people who do are subsidizing your free bug fixes and content expansion.

 

[Olligarchy]

Hmm, so I guess I'll ask it.

Cadet branches? :unsure:

 

[Rozmarzony]

You should realize that ck2 was so buggy upon release, that first version, which was sold was 1.01 not 1.0.

 

[unmerged(751237)]

I'll say it again: This DLC is ridiculous. You can customise your looks, dynasty COA and kingdom name and that's about it. If you're going to make a separate DLC instead of expanding Ruler Designer, at least include more stuff than that. Stuff like changing a nation's colour or COA could make this DLC much better.

 

[kraussda]

I'll say it again: This DLC is ridiculous. You can customise your looks, dynasty COA and kingdom name and that's about it. If you're going to make a separate DLC instead of expanding Ruler Designer, at least include more stuff than that. Stuff like changing a nation's colour or COA could make this DLC much better.

I'll say it again: If you don't want it, don't buy it.

 

[Wezqu]

This happens everytime new DLC comes threads turn to some argument over DLC policy etc. Like it really matters that much.

 

[edwardianed]

"I'm really annoyed because some people are going to buy something that I think is silly and/or bad value; and even though their purchase in no way affects me, I'm still furious that they have the option to purchase it when I don't think they should!"

 

[Cymsdale]

This happens everytime new DLC comes threads turn to some argument over DLC policy etc. Like it really matters that much.

They already ban quite a few topics of discussion in the forum rules. I really think they should consider adding "DLC bitching" to the list. It gets awful tiring.

 

[Tirenedon]

I'm not against DLCs, i'm against unsupported DLC. Expanding ruler designer would hurt paradox so much that they have to create new dlc?

They did support the portrait packs and fix many errors with them, but the problem is that everyone who had the non-steam version had to re-download the packs for them to work. They also do support DLCs, look at all the tweaks they made to the Old Gods and other DLCs.

 

[Kljunas]

I'll say it again: If you don't want it, don't buy it.

He's just voicing his opinion on what he think would make the DLC good and would make him want to buy it.

 

[Star Era]

They already ban quite a few topics of discussion in the forum rules. I really think they should consider adding "DLC bitching" to the list. It gets awful tiring.

LoL