Childhood Education still gutted

[Afinati]

Reaper's Due is gonna release this month and I'm six months now into having abandoned CK2 after over 1600+ hours of playtime due to the sorry state in which childhood education has been left.

Somebody please tell me they don't like the soulless micro of childhood focuses for each kid, the devaluation yet retension of guardians, and the huge loss of childhood-related events. Am I the only person who found this to be so much more affecting than AE and even forced acceptance into war?

 

[Rationalsanity]

It's easily my biggest problem with the game right now. I just want an option to choose between the education systems in the next patch.

 

[Slayen]

Reaper's Due is gonna release this month and I'm six months now into having abandoned CK2 after over 1600+ hours of playtime due to the sorry state in which childhood education has been left.

Somebody please tell me they don't like the soulless micro of childhood focuses for each kid, the devaluation yet retension of guardians, and the huge loss of childhood-related events. Am I the only person who found this to be so much more affecting than AE and even forced acceptance into war?

You are not alone. It's one of the big things that's kept me from getting Conclave.

 

[RagingJaws]

So after 1600 hours playing this game, the deal breaker is childhood events? Really?

Some people actually like new system. The new childhood traits that morph into "adult" traits are such a good addition for those that don't want to control every aspect of their children's psych profile. I much prefer having few traits at a young age for a character and "growing" into more as my character ages. Indeed, I've yet to see in several different games of varying length, any sort of feared homogenization of characters. The only thing that isn't there anymore are the, frankly, boring pre-conclave childhood events where you can stamp your current characters personality onto your heir with a relatively high chance of success.

That's what some people are so upset about and I love it. What we really could use for personality events are more varied ones for gaining/losing traits overall. Maybe a re-balancing of some %chance for some events too.

 

[Rationalsanity]

So after 1600 hours playing this game, the deal breaker is childhood events? Really?

Some people actually like new system. The new childhood traits that morph into "adult" traits are such a good addition for those that don't want to control every aspect of their children's psych profile. I much prefer having few traits at a young age for a character and "growing" into more as my character ages. Indeed, I've yet to see in several different games of varying length, any sort of feared homogenization of characters. The only thing that isn't there anymore are the, frankly, boring pre-conclave childhood events where you can stamp your current characters personality onto your heir with a relatively high chance of success.

That's what some people are so upset about and I love it. What we really could use for personality events are more varied ones for gaining/losing traits overall. Maybe a re-balancing of some %chance for some events too.

We aren't upset about a loss of control, the issue is that the process is boring and content was stripped without being replaced. I welcome not every kid being a super human but the education process should still be interesting.

Plus the new systen is unbalanced. Some foci are flat out better than others.

 

[Afinati]

So after 1600 hours playing this game, the deal breaker is childhood events? Really?

Super really. No exaggeration. I've attempted a few campaigns, but I stopped each time in an hour or less. I've purchased everything in CK2 (except the ebooks and metal music) and have weathered each storm with some changes I've liked and others I've gotten used to, but I can't play with this. It feels too empty and it asks me to work more than before for the emptiness.

What we really could use for personality events are more varied ones for gaining/losing traits overall. Maybe a re-balancing of some %chance for some events too.

Now this I can get behind. Having the same number of events as before with similar frequencies during childhood ... but actually having to make tough choices morally and strategically? I've wanted that for years.


I get that events get old and predictable after a whIle and there's little strategy in always choosing the better outcome. But at least there's story in those events. I felt like there were enough of them, spaced well enough apart that the characters had life experiences as kids.

And I still think choosing two focuses is a bit much for each kid. It's more work than choosing a guardian for each kid ... which itself had some people annoyed in the past until the game auto-suggested a guardian. Is it as bad as when you had to choose the guardian for every relative in your Muslim realm? Almost ... especially considering that this replaced a superior system.

 

[Sonmi]

We aren't upset about a loss of control, the issue is that the process is boring and content was stripped without being replaced. I welcome not every kid being a super human but the education process should still be interesting.

Plus the new systen is unbalanced. Some foci are flat out better than others.

While I prefer the new system to the new, I have to say that you are absolutely right about it being boring at the moment. There should be more events affecting the relationships of the child, as well as straight stat upgrades and downgrades.

And yeah, some foci need some rebalancing.

 

[RagingJaws]

We aren't upset about a loss of control, the issue is that the process is boring and content was stripped without being replaced. I welcome not every kid being a super human but the education process should still be interesting.

Plus the new systen is unbalanced. Some foci are flat out better than others.

The problem is that some of the best content added is from the perspective of a child. Unless you are the character child in question, you only see half the event(s) and react, rather than act. What should be added are parent focused events where you can influence the child by bringing them somewhere or something context specific. If doing that means rewriting/re-scripting old events so it makes sense, fine by me. I just don't consider it a total step back.

As for some foci being flat out better, well yeah. Some eagerly sought after traits are flat out better to. I mix and match all my children's foci (as well as in court kinsman) and groom them for a role. Some fail terribly, some go insane, some succeed beyond my wildest hopes. It'd be boring if there wasn't a "bad" choice among the group.

And I still think choosing two focuses is a bit much for each kid. It's more work than choosing a guardian for each kid ... which itself had some people annoyed in the past until the game auto-suggested a guardian. Is it as bad as when you had to choose the guardian for every relative in your Muslim realm? Almost ... especially considering that this replaced a superior system.

This is where I find myself in such extreme disagreement. There is barely anything to do in peacetime (Republics having the most activity, double so for Norse Republics) and two button clicks 7 years apart really isn't that extreme. Sometimes it gets so boring that I actively search around for nearly dead dynasties to resurrect.

 

[Rationalsanity]

I think we can agree that the Conclave system with some tweaking and flavor would be ideal. Right now it's just another Conclave feature with a waste of potential.

 

[Knotz]

More traits gained during the 0-12 years would mean you had more of a hand in your kids rearing during the 12-16 years, maybe make it a bit more likely to get traits beyond the set focus. Personally I don't see too much of a problem with it, I like it better than the old one despite that it comes across as kinda rigid sometimes.

 

[Afinati]

two button clicks 7 years apart really isn't that extreme.

If you've had a kid every few years for twenty-five years, you'd have eight or so kids. The clicking would be evenly dispersed throughout this period of your adult life, sure ... but the number gets a bit large. You'd click the notification, the focus menu, the focus button, then a confirmation, then out of the kid's character page. Then you do it all again when you choose an education focus. So that's eighty clicks. Also, there's the random family members in your court to consider.

Even if you have less than eight kids (which to be fair, is likely), there's still a number of times you have to go into a menu and select an uninteresting option for each child relative in your court that you didn't have to before.

Sometimes it gets so boring that I actively search around for nearly dead dynasties to resurrect.

I enjoy doing that. I still understand and relate to trying to find interesting things to do in a lull period. But it's my opinion that they've taken out a mass of guts and replaced it with a greater mass of Styrofoam. I could have just occupied and used to occupy that time looking into family histories and states of affair.

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

Well, I like conclave, and far from that it kept me not playing, but I support that childhood education needs a major rework. Focuses are fine, having guardians and educators is fine. We want more events, more capability to influence the child's education, but also more severe penalties and rewards, etc.. the idea behind childhood traits is good, I would keep that, but I would rework the way it is done.

 

[RX2000]

These people who always say that they quit playing the game because x mechanic is broken, how were you ever able to play the game at all? As far back as I can remember some part of CK2 has been "broken" for somebody.

I actually stopped playing for a while after RoI came out, because I thought (& still think) that its a silly idea to expand CK2 into India.