Beginners Critique of CK2

[Urloc the Great]

First: CK2 isn't my first Paradox game, I've played Eu4 and Stellaris before (for hundreds of hours, both) so I wanted to share my first experiences with CK2:


Tutorial:
The tutorial is great, after Stellaris it is one of my favourites in general because it allows the player freedom to explore everything and gives some good advices for external politics. However I wish there was some option to open a closed pop-up back up or to show all pop-ups you already have unlocked/gotten.


Learning the Game:
This has to be one of my most frustrating experiences. The tutorial teaches you next to nothing about internal politics and if you click a notification (eg. over the demesne limit) it neither tells you how to fix it nor what penalties you actually get.
You start with Gavelkind (Leon does) which is the WORST government form for a new player just trying to get somewhere/have some fun. Not only does the death of your main character undo ALL the stuff you have done in the Tutorial, you basically start at 0 again, the game doesn't even tell you how or why it happened.


Multiplayer:
I had this weird bug: A guy of my dynasty had children, but I still got game over when he died and my children inherited, leading to a very annoying 30 min interruption because we had to reload the game just so that I could continue to play.

 

[myrt]

"Not only does the death of your main character undo ALL the stuff "

That ain't true, make it so that your best titles are your primary titles so that your playable heir will be the most powerful of all your heirs. Next up, you get strong claims on the other heirs' holdings, so you can easily conquer them back.

 

[Eldarad]

I think all of your comments are valid, and one of the drawbacks of having such an old game that has been updated so much is that the 'new player experience' gets more and more bewildering. Gavilkind will be a frustration throughout your gameplay, it's just something you have to learn deal with (as in, how to mitigate its effects, or change the succession law). I guess all I would say to you is:
1) keep in mind that you're aiming to improve the position of your dynasty...which may not necessarily be the same as the position of your country, and
2) go have a cup of tea and then start a new game - you'll enjoy it

 

[Serenity84]

With gavelkind focus on your capital county as far as new buildings are concerned. This will be your power base and it naturally gets other bonuses anyways

Keep only one top title if possible. One kingdom or one duchy. Then anyone that splits will still be your vassal. When a complete split happens you get a strong claim on it. So you can have reunification wars

 

[Urloc the Great]

"Not only does the death of your main character undo ALL the stuff "

That ain't true, make it so that your best titles are your primary titles so that your playable heir will be the most powerful of all your heirs. Next up, you get strong claims on the other heirs' holdings, so you can easily conquer them back.

Thanks for the advice, where can I see what my primary titles are? And how do I set my primary titles?

I think all of your comments are valid, and one of the drawbacks of having such an old game that has been updated so much is that the 'new player experience' gets more and more bewildering. Gavilkind will be a frustration throughout your gameplay, it's just something you have to learn deal with (as in, how to mitigate its effects, or change the succession law). I guess all I would say to you is:
1) keep in mind that you're aiming to improve the position of your dynasty...which may not necessarily be the same as the position of your country, and
2) go have a cup of tea and then start a new game - you'll enjoy it

Thanks, I will try. Is there any advice on how I can keep my Dynasty alive? Or how I can strengthen it?

Currently I just marry all my offspring off to the people of the top of the list, is there a better way?

Does an affair with the decision Lady help getting more offspring?

With gavelkind focus on your capital county as far as new buildings are concerned. This will be your power base and it naturally gets other bonuses anyways

Keep only one top title if possible. One kingdom or one duchy. Then anyone that splits will still be your vassal. When a complete split happens you get a strong claim on it. So you can have reunification wars

Thanks for the advice, capital county is the one province where my coat of arms is placed on the map, right?

Is there a way to know which provinces go to which heir in the case of a succession?

 

[Serenity84]

The "title loss on succession" warning on top shows you what goes to whom

Also when you hover of a title shield in the character or province overview it shows the whole line of succession

 

[Duskwave]

Thanks for the advice, where can I see what my primary titles are? And how do I set my primary titles?

Each character that has one or more titles has exactly one primary title. It's the one they're referred to as when named, and it's the left-most in the array of shields on the character sheet. To set it to a different one (if you have multiple of your highest rank, like two Duke titles but no King ones), click the other title's shield and hit the "Set as Primary" button on the title details page.