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CK2 Dev Diary #46: Surveying the Survey

Greetings!

In today’s Dev Diary we would like to present some of the information we gathered from the CK2 survey we did some time ago. The survey is based on a sample size of between 4000-5000 answers per data point. Note that we have not measured what you thought of any free features that came in the major patches, but rather this survey focused on the paid features of our various DLC’s. I won’t present all of it in this DD, but I will bring up some interesting points that might amuse you!


Amount of survey takers that both Owns and Plays a given DLC:

Sword of Islam - 90.8%

Legacy of Rome - 92,36%

Sunset Invasion - 71,54%

The Republic - 89.32%

The Old Gods - 96,17%

Sons of Abraham - 91,92%

Rajas of India - 82,29%

Charlemagne - 91,66%

Way of Life - 92,97%

Horse Lords - 82,91%

Conclave - 81,57%

Reaper’s Due - 79,29%


The DLC’s that built the most hype before they were released:

The Old Gods
  • A total of 92,05% of the ones taking the test were excited for the DLC - and most impressively a whopping 64,01% were extremely interested!
The Reaper’s Due
  • A total of 80,87% of the ones taking the test were excited for the DLC - and of those 47,27% were extremely interested. While The Old Gods tops the charts for pre-release hype, The Reaper’s Due also significantly peaked the interests!
Way of Life
  • A total of 77,83% of the ones taking the test were excited for the DLC - and of those 42,38% were extremely interested.
While many DLC’s built a lot of interest before they were released, these three stand out from the crowd.


The DLC’s that built the least hype:

Sunset Invasion
  • A total of 34,3% of the ones taking the test were not interested in this DLC, with 33,10% being indifferent.
This leaves the Sunset Invasion as the only DLC that did not manage to build much interest.

The DLC’s that exceeded your expectations the most:

The Reaper’s Due
  • A total of 76,73% of the ones taking the test thought that it was better than expected - where 42,52% thought it exceeded their expectations by a landslide!
The Old Gods
  • A total of 82,53% of the ones taking the test thought that it was better than expected - where 41,91% thought it exceeded their expectations by a landslide!
This means that while The Old Gods is the overall winner, The Reaper’s Due had the most people being completely blown away.

And the other side of the coin, the DLC’s that did not live up to your expectations:

Sunset Invasion
  • A total of 26,97% of the ones taking the test thought that this DLC didn’t live up to their initial impressions, with a respectable 49,17% thinking it was just as expected.
This leaves the Sunset Invasion as the only DLC where for a lot of players it did not live up to the initial impression.

The DLC’s that has content you use the most often:

Way of Life
  • With a whopping total of 96,83% of the ones taking the test using content from this DLC in just about every game they play, Way of Life takes the unchallenged top spot. Of these, 85,57% use Way of Life content in every game they play.
The Reaper’s Due
  • A total of 89,69% of the ones taking the test uses content from this DLC in just about every game they play. Of these, 69,80% use The Reaper’s Due content in every game they play.
The Old Gods
  • A total of 89,95% of the ones taking the test uses content from this DLC in just about every game they play. Of these, 56,23% use The old Gods content in every game they play.

The DLC’s that has content you use the least often:

Sunset Invasion
  • A total of 61,97% rarely use any content from this DLC. Among them 26,69% never use any content.
Rajas of India
  • A total of 49,52% rarely use any content from this DLC. Among them 13,64% never use any content.
Sword of Islam
  • A total of 33,17% rarely use any content from this DLC. Though only 3,91% never use any content.

The most AND least well received feature, per DLC:

Sword of Islam
  • Most: Polygamy
  • Least: Decadence

Legacy of Rome
  • Most: Retinues
  • Least: Ability to Restore Rome
(Note that there were only 2 data points for this DLC, Restoring Rome actually scored quite high, but retinues has it beat by a landslide)


Sunset Invasion
  • Most: Aztec Culture & Religion
  • Least: Aztec Invasion Event

The Republic
  • Most: Family Palaces
  • Least: Republic CB’s and war restrictions

The Old Gods
  • Most: Playable Pagans and Zoroastrians (This was the most well received feature of all features, with a massive majority of 92,55% rating this feature as great)
  • Least: Adventurers

Sons of Abraham
  • Most: Pilgrimages
  • Least: Restoring the Kingdom of Israel

Rajas of India
  • Most: New Playable Religions
  • Least: Jungle Terrain

Charlemagne
  • Most: Custom Kingdoms and Empires
  • Least: Zun Religion (This is the feature that interested the least players overall, with 46,22% rating this feature as uninteresting, narrowly beating Jungle Terrain by ~4%)

Way of Life
  • Most: Lifestyle Traits
  • Least: Character Focus
(Note that once again there were only 2 data points for this DLC)


Horse Lords
  • Most: Silk Road Features
  • Least: Clan Politics

Conclave
  • Most: Reworked Laws
  • Least: Favors

Reaper’s Due
  • Most: New Maimed Traits
  • Least: Seclusion


The additions that you rate the highest in a new DLC:

  1. New Events - With an overwhelming majority of 73,16% appreciating this type of addition very much.

  2. New Starting Dates - With 51,53% appreciating this type of addition very much.

  3. Reworked Previously Existing Features - With 44,25% appreciating this type of addition very much.

  4. Expanded Map - With 38,94% appreciating this type of addition very much.

  5. New Succession Laws - With 29,16% appreciating this type of addition very much.

  6. Interface Skins - With 25,24% appreciating this type of addition very much.

We hope that this was interesting to you, even though it’s in a heavily condensed format - hopefully we’ll be able to present even more survey results in the future!
 
Hopefully we won't see anymore sunset invasions. Still never understood why you guys made it, no one even asked for it.

Well, I for one am satisfied that the DLC that must not be named scored so poorly.
 
They could just troll us even further by giving us another Sunset Invasion, but instead of the Aztecs invading Europe, the Chinese will invade India. How about that?

They can call it: Sunrise Invasion.
 
Hopefully we won't see anymore sunset invasions. Still never understood why you guys made it, no one even asked for it.

Because us asking for it simply isn't a prerequisite for them making it? Because they knew some portion of the player base would find it fun?

What I wanna see is the Aztecs get more diverse and sail into the mediterranean. This is not my idea it comes from a certain bearded CK2 streamer (https://www.twitch.tv/cringer63) I watch.

Especially now with rules why not give the Aztec's the ability to sail into the mediterranean and attack anyone there? I know part of their purpose was to provide a cool eastern horde but really enabling them to also attack the more central realms would just spice things up, add to the emergent story possibilities.
 
I'm a little surprised The Republic was not one of the three least-used DLCs. Republics are fun, but I reckoned the paucity of starts compared to say, the Sword of Islam, would have seen it drop. Maybe we're all still hunting those elusive 80 trade posts?

I hope you aren't seeing these results as a request for more start dates...

I wouldn't want to see the timeline going back any further, but filling in some of the gaps between the earlier start dates? Count me in! Would love the histories between 869 and 1066 to be populated so we could do battle with folk like Cnut the Great, ruler of Denmark, England and Norway.
 
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Interesting, thanks.

Can you share what outcomes or rather consequences these have? Is there a lessons learnt that you'd implement on the back of this for further DLCs or CK3?

I'm not asking specifics obviously, but more things like; 'less/more story based elements and focus', 'less/more non-historic content', etc. Just curious what you made of the results.
 
I remember the furore over Sunset Invasion. It must have been the most poorest DLC ever put out by Paradox. Even Together For Victory pales in comparison.
 
Hopefully we won't see anymore sunset invasions. Still never understood why you guys made it, no one even asked for it.

I think I get the mechanical purpose, at least.

At some point, the Mongols will show up and throw the entire Eastern portion of the map into chaos, forcing everybody to adapt to this new circumstance. By contrast, the West can just sort of keep doing its thing (unless the Mongols do really well), and remains kind of static.

The Sunset Invasion, then, is simply there to cause havoc in the West and shake up the late game like the Mongols do in the East.

Also, it's funny.
 
I was somewhat suprised that pilgrimages were at the top of Sons of Abraham and the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel at the bottom considering how the pilgrimages often feel like an irrelevant side part of the game (though a nice event chain) while Israel allows one to play the jews similarly to the Zoroastrians in one's goals.
 
Hopefully we won't see anymore sunset invasions. Still never understood why you guys made it, no one even asked for it.

They made it because the concept is extremely straightforward (Aztecs invade Europe) and requires only a couple events and a few pieces of art. As far as DLCs go, SI probably required the least investment to create. Aztec religion is functionally identical to most other pagan religions except with pseudo-Norse events.

Compare any DLC that implements new game rules or a new UI - whether that's college of cardinals, life focus screen, retinues, etc. SI could have been created entirely by a modder.