Hi folks!

It's been a while, and I bet you're all wondering what we've been up to... Now, I can't reveal anything about the upcoming expansion quite yet, but, to tide you over, I thought I'd talk a bit about our other efforts. As you know, with every expansion comes a slew of free improvements and fixes. This time the focus has been on the latter; clearing up old bugs and issues (the change log is currently 620 lines long). Sometimes, that has required us to do some fairly major code rewrites. For example, we got rid of the rule that your 'government type' was determined by the type of your Capital Holding. (You know how it was game over when you got a Temple Holding as a capital, even for a tiny period? Well, now that kind of thing cannot happen anymore.) The government form is now something more persistent, and can have various rules that override those of your religion (whether you can raid, take concubines, etc.) To go along with this change, we also reworked the portrait frames to clearly distinguish between the various government forms.

In a similar vein, almost since release we've been plagued by bugs with characters leading multiple regiments and/or flanks, which could even cause crashes. Part of the problem was that the whole system was rather strange, so we decided to consolidate it in the following way: only the ruler, the Marshal and characters you have appointed Commander (a new title) can lead flanks or your own demesne and retinue regiments. Vassal levy regiments can still be led by your loyal vassals, but a character can never both lead a flank and a regiment. Mercenaries become more useful because they come with their own, good, leaders. Flank leaders apply their martial bonus to all regiments in the flank. Oh, and the combat system has been updated under the hood to correct various quirks that few people ever noticed, but which could sometimes cause never-ending battles and such.

In the process of implementing the new Commander title, we decided we might as well throw in a more convenient Honorary Title view. This is a perfect example of how what starts as a simple bug fix can turn into a whole new little quality-of-life feature. In this whole house cleaning process, we've also made some serious optimizations to the speed and memory usage of the game.

To finish off, here are some random snippets from the change log:

Spoiler

- Revised the pagan Subjugation CB so that it completely subjugates the target but no Holdings ever change hands
- Added "Stop Seduction" and "Stop Spying" decisions
- Failing to imprison vassals of vassals now correctly forces them to abdicate and flee the realm
- AI will not join wars against spouse
- When your heir has an equal tier title to yours, _your_ laws are now copied to his primary title on succession
- Character Finder: The 'Married' filter now excludes concubines too
- Character Finder: Councillors now correctly show up too!
- Fixed a problem with allies of vassals staying in the war when the vassals's liege joins the other side
- Fixed some cases of ANY_ALL in location tooltips
- Duels now potentially give the Kinslayer trait
- The Yazidi Sheikh and Hurufi Caliph now have access to the Muslim subjugation CB and the Jihad CB
- The Paulician faith can now properly mend the schism
- The Hashshashins can now resurface after being scattered
- Fixed some issues with 'excommunication' for Yazidis
- Sons with traits blocking them from inheritance no longer count as "unlanded sons", causing prestige loss
- AI: Toned down seduction by characters with many children
- AI: Toned down impregnation chances for seduction affairs with characters with many children
- Handsome and lustful men now also populate the cabins in the wild for the pleasures of people who find them attractive

That's all for now, but from now on, we plan to post a dev diary every Tuesday, even if it's a short one!

 

[Groogy]

Maybe it highlights different government forms?

Yupp

 

[Karolus Magnus]

This all looks fantastic. My only question is one of those bugfixes a fix for the Coat of Arms when changing religions with a custom dynasty? That's been my big hangup since I started playing. I know you guys have been aware of this since or before January (see this thread) https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...of-arms-always-changing.828087/#post-18662382

So I wanted to hear back about that if possible. Thank you.

Yes, this is one of the many bugfixes. The CoA will still be randomly generated for the religion you change to IF you have NOT customized your dynasty. If you have customized your dynasty, it will not happen anymore.

Wait. Are government forms about to become moddable?

I really hope that government types will be moddable so we will be able to make for example playable theocracies in mods where they are dynastic (Elder Kings...). And PLEASE give white ribbon to feudal religious head (Fylkirs, Caliphs...)

(and many other similar posts)

Yes. Governments will be moddable. And when moddable I do mean that it is possible to add new ones, script historical governments and change the behavior of them. I may have missed some effects but most of them should now be visible in the government script, such as free_retract_vassalage for Muslims, and the allows_matrilineal_marriage for republics. In this script it is also possible to mod the holding types which are allowed for the specific government, the color for the Government Mapmode and potential/allow triggers.

And yes, theocracies have white ribbons.

Can you game this by assigning yourself to your army when you're leading your liege army?

Being a commander, which is an honor you can decline and resign from, means that you are not allowed to lead your own armies.

If the type of government held is no longer determined by the capital holding now, how can Republics turn into Kingdoms, now?

They won't. However it is much easier to mod decisions to change government now, with a set_government_type effect.

 

[Groogy]

Now that we have some updates to combat leadership, is there now a way to ban your character from leading armies like we can already do to advisors? I understand the people want their king to lead them to battle but sometimes that king is maimed or infirm and then it would make a lot more sense for that king to not go into battle.

You can ban yourself from leading your own armies but not liege's armies.

 

[crowdemon]

Yes, thank you my lord.

 

[King Anund]

What does that "Temple" map filter mean?

 

[Groogy]

Muslims are a different government type called Iqta

 

[Es57]

Will you implement the long-awaited ability to scroll through cultural first names when naming a newborn ? (like in the ruler designer)

For those who don't name their characters King Douchebag III and actually care about cultural accuracy for names ?

 

[Groogy]

That's all the patch or are more Dev diaries planned for it?

This is only the first one. We can't cover +600 lines of changelog in one dev diary.

 

[Groogy]

Through use of the "obtain shinier hat" ambition.

Hmm... This needs to be added with exactly this name...

 

[Groogy]

Well.. sorry for possibly dumb question, but is there any ETA of release?

Before end of time... Maybe

 

[Doomdark]

Will you show all the patch notes before announcement of the expansion?

For sure!

 

[Karolus Magnus]

Not to engage on any Wild Mass Guessing here, but...

*puts tinfoil hat on*

This may mean inland republics in the future.

It also means no game over by losing your port province since you will not become a non-merchant republic.

 

[Tweakee]

GASP! The Crusader Kings team has returned from another dimension!

With the changes to army leaders, PLEASE pleaseplease tell me that we'll be able to ban our King from being auto-assigned to lead random troops and get his brain scrambled?

 

[Groogy]

All I want is to play with more than 4 people in multiplayer for more than 30 minutes without it desyncing/crashing.

CK2 is like the ultimate in multiplayer experiences.

I'm spending more or less half of this week on Oos issues. So should be a lot better with 2.4

 

[DesNibelungen]

You know how it was game over when you got a Temple Holding as a capital, even for a tiny period? Well, now that kind of thing cannot happen anymore.)

In this whole house cleaning process, we've also made some serious optimizations to the speed and memory usage of the game.

- Added "Stop Seduction" and "Stop Spying" decisions

That's all for now, but from now on, we plan to post a dev diary every Tuesday, even if it's a short one!

All hail PDS.

Also, this needs to go in the changelog Hall of Fame: "Handsome and lustful men now also populate the cabins in the wild for the pleasures of people who find them attractive"

 

[Doomdark]

How will the government forms work when handing out titles? Can you choose the form of government your courtier gets, or is that still decided by the holdings?

That is still determined by the first holding the courtier is given, though it would now be fairly easy to change that.

 

[Tufto]

Theocracy DLC confirmed.

Confirmation jokes not being funny for several years confirmed .

 

[Groogy]

I'm curious what the yellow fill in the tactic icon means... Can't wait to hear more!

Its time until next tactic change

 

[Doomdark]

Doomdark, do you think that the changes to government types might cause other problems? For example, if my character becomes Pope for whatever reason, I switch to a theocracy and the game ends. If that didn't happen, wouldn't the game go on with my character as the Pope?

It's still game over in that case. I did not mean that it is impossible for players to change government form, but it no longer depends on your capital holding.