CKII vs EU4 development cycle - speculation time

[Keizer Harm]

Jade Dragon and Cradle of Civilisation were released on the same day, in November 2017.

Now, over four months later, EU4 is two days from releasing their next DLC, while there's only been vague rumours regarding the future of CK2, and two DD's about patch material.

• Optimistic theory: the next CK2 DLC will be so huge they are still too far from release to want to show anything about it.
• Pessimistic theory: half the CK2 dev team got fired.

Any other theories?

Note: I don't intend to bash the devs. They've clearly said they're not going to be doing regular dev diaries (yet), and we all know the game is almost done developing, which is all fair enough. This is just some speculation about the reasons.

 

[Erratorium]

I don’t know if they revised what they said but if I remember correctly, a few month ago, before Jade Dragon, they said that they wanted to do either a big dlc or 2 smaller one and then stop doing dlc for CK2.
As for why they take a lot of time for this extention, for what a dev said in the last game dev diaries, they wrote a lot of text so maybe they added a lot of flavor event to a lot of area and it takes time to implement everything. Or maybe they are taking their time because it will be the last dlc and want to put as much as they want (and can).

 

[faiuwle]

The "CK2 dev team" as of the last DD about the internal workings of PI, consisted only of Meneth. They can't exactly fire half of Meneth. CK2 is an old game that is probably living on borrowed time at this point. Obviously there's going to be fewer updates.

 

[Masternachos]

My theory is that EUIV's next DLC is a minor one, and that CK2's next DLC is regular-sized, thereby taking more time than a minor DLC does. Whether or not the EUIV team was working on their next full DLC at the same time will determine whether or not it's released alongside CK2's again.

 

[StephenCoffey]

The "CK2 dev team" as of the last DD about the internal workings of PI, consisted only of Meneth. They can't exactly fire half of Meneth.

"You may only type with your left hand, and you must wear this eyepatch over your right eye - we've fired the left side of your brain"

 

[faiuwle]

Does that mean that his left brain could work another job and he could get a double income?

 

[shiro the bushi]

Britannia was not a big dlc, i would equate it to one of stellaris story packs. We do know that this dlc for ck will be huge, not to mention they are also working on map reworks as part of the free update which will takeup a good bit of time too

 

[Snow Crystal]

Meneth is an absolute champ, for sure, but not the only one around. And nobody has been fired. The next expansion is just large.

 

[faiuwle]

I asked to double-check when that dev diary came out, and Meneth confirmed that he was the only dev. Have you hired more people since then, or are you counting QA, too?

 

[Snow Crystal]

I asked to double-check when that dev diary came out, and Meneth confirmed that he was the only dev. Have you hired more people since then, or are you counting QA, too?

3 Content Designers, 2 Embedded QA, 1 Game Designer, 2 Programmers, 1 Artist, and the Project Manager is working on the next expansion.

Two of us are new to the CK2 team, the rest have been around for a while

 

[Nyrael]

EU4 is releasing what their team calls an "Immersion Pack", not a full-pledged expansion. CK2's DLC in development is a full-pledged expansion.
Also, you can't compare development times anyway. They are different DLCs, with differing scopes, developed by different people, all requiring different amounts of development times for these reeasons. The release dates are only the same when conveniently two DLCs are nearly done at almost the same time.

I don’t know if they revised what they said but if I remember correctly, a few month ago, before Jade Dragon, they said that they wanted to do either a big dlc or 2 smaller one and then stop doing dlc for CK2.
As for why they take a lot of time for this extention, for what a dev said in the last game dev diaries, they wrote a lot of text so maybe they added a lot of flavor event to a lot of area and it takes time to implement everything. Or maybe they are taking their time because it will be the last dlc and want to put as much as they want (and can).

They said that a year ago or more, and soon after Johan came and declared that the DLCs will keep being released for as long as they are bought. In other words, this hasn't been valid for long time .

 

[Erratorium]

They said that a year ago or more, and soon after Johan came and declared that the DLCs will keep being released for as long as they are bought. In other words, this hasn't been valid for long time .

I could not access this site for a few months so I missed that. Thanks for the info.

 

[AjayAlcos]

• Optimistic theory: the next CK2 DLC will be so huge they are still too far from release to want to show anything about it.
• Pessimistic theory: half the CK2 dev team got fired.

Eh... Something in between?

Also Paradox tends to redistribute staff to some degree onto other projects at the end of a particular development cycle. This is true not only after a game has finished being developed but also after every couple of major expansions/DLC's.

 

[CaptainPolyp]

I guess EU4 team is also bigger than CK2 team. CK2 is an old game leaning towards the end of its development. This does not seem surprising that the game slows down, especially compared with EU4.

 

[sreckom92]

Jade Dragon was released more than 8 months after the previous expansion. That sounds a bit too much, considering it wasn't really spectacularly large.
So, either the development is slowed down, some JD features provided more trouble to be developed, or there was parallel work on the really big upcoming expansion after JD.

 

[LeSingeAffame]

Meneth is an absolute champ, for sure, but not the only one around. And nobody has been fired. The next expansion is just large.

Now I'm excited

 

[Thure]

Meneth is an absolute champ, for sure, but not the only one around. And nobody has been fired. The next expansion is just large.

3 Content Designers, 2 Embedded QA, 1 Game Designer, 2 Programmers, 1 Artist, and the Project Manager is working on the next expansion.

Two of us are new to the CK2 team, the rest have been around for a while

This confirms it!

 

[Snow Crystal]

This confirms it!

Confirms .. what exactly?

 

[Thure]

Confirms .. what exactly?

That it will be a large expansion. And that the team is larger than 1 guy doing all the jobs like some were thinking.

 

[Dalos]

Sounds great. Hopefuly this won't be the last one.

Among some obvious things (Crusades, more pagan stuff) I really hope we'll get eventually unique buildings similar to items, that would be nice.

Edit: And maybe some sort of palaces for feudals.