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Greetings, fellow medievalists!

'Tis Thursday, and time for another entry in my ongoing chronicle of fabulousness. You have asked of technology, so today, being the just and kind ruler that I am, I shall speak of technological advancements.

The technology system is, in fact, quite similar to the one in Crusader Kings. There are three main areas of technological advancement; Military, Economy and Culture. Each of these categories contains eight different technologies. For example, in the Military category, we have things like Castles, Bows, Tactics, and Light Armor. Every province in the game has its own level of advancement for all technologies (level 0 to V.) So Thrake might have Castles III, Legalism II, etc. Technology levels control what types of buildings can be built in the county holdings, the quality of the levies raised there, and many other things.

Crusader_Kings2_DevDiary_01.png

Technology tends to spread to neighboring counties like in Crusader Kings. You can increase the rate of innovation by focusing on one technology per category - also like in the original game. However, you now also have the option of sending one of your councillors to a county to increase the rate of innovation. For example, your Marshal can research military technology in one of your counties, and the Spymaster can study technology in a foreign province, which might spread its advancements to your capital.

Crusader_Kings2_DevDiary_02.png

The three technology categories are each associated with a character attribute, Military with Martial, Economy with Stewardship, and Culture with Diplomacy. All three are also helped by the Learning attribute (which is new to Crusader Kings II and the primary attribute of the Lord Spiritual). The rate of innovation thus depends on your ruler's skills (and those of the councillors and spouse.)

Until next time!
 
I like it
 
first time first /edit: I was beaten to the honour/

I am happy that you kept the basic idea of technological research, as I think it models the spread of technology at that age very well.
I have to say though that in a busy game it was often quite likely that I lost count of the technologies spreading, as that percentage effects of each new advance did not always seem to make a big different as oppsed to grand strategy considerations and wars. Hence I would perhaps suggest that you make the steps more pronounced, or perhaps institute some milestone in every technology (or technology combination) that is really worth to look out for, and click more often on the technology screen.

Thank you for all your hard work, this is shaping up to be a very good game.
 
Very interesting. What are those numbers at the top of each tech column? (47/44/44) Is that the sum of the ruler/spouse/councilor attributes for each tech type?
 
It seems like a nice, simple system to reasonably model technology development in the period. I like the fact that the player only has limited influence on the advancement of technology. Some questions...

1) Does the rate of technology advancement increase with population? I have no idea how population is modeled in CK2, but it would seem that the more people that are around, the more likely one of of them thinks up something new (or hears of it from a neighboring region).

2) You say that technology spreads to neighboring provinces. What about along sea routes and trade routes? Can a technology leap from Tunisia to Sicily if there are frequent merchant exchanges between them? More broadly, how the heck is trade modeled? :)

3) As I understand it, the population of Europe roughly doubled between 1000AD and 1300AD. A great deal of this success can be attributed to significant agricultural advancements like the adoption of the heavy plow and the three-field crop rotation system. Are the benefits you gain from agricultural technology going to be modest (for game balance reasons) or major (for historical accuracy)? Or does the game start off assuming that Western Europe already has a new technological edge that enables them to grow disproportionately to their neighbors?
 
Great DD as usual. Will some character traits increase or decrease the chance of technological advancement, for example if a character is open minded or narrowminded?
Also, is there a small chance that warfare techology might increase if you often hire mercanaries or holy armies. Can technology decrease, like if your whole kingdom has been plundered and raided ?
 
The stars seem to differentiate between "Province" technologies and "Realm" technologies. What does this mean?
 
Legalism, hm? I wonder if one could use it to benefit his claims. That's what Frederick II did with roman law experts in the University of Bologna to ensure his imperial claims, IIRC.
 
I notice that in the second screenshot there's an underling with the title of "chief". May I assume this means he is a tribal vassal?

Correct. :)

Also, can you tell us why one Mayor is wearing armor and the other is not?

He could be a Marshal, or just have a very high martial attribute.
 
It seems like a nice, simple system to reasonably model technology development in the period. I like the fact that the player only has limited influence on the advancement of technology. Some questions...

1) Does the rate of technology advancement increase with population? I have no idea how population is modeled in CK2, but it would seem that the more people that are around, the more likely one of of them thinks up something new (or hears of it from a neighboring region).

2) You say that technology spreads to neighboring provinces. What about along sea routes and trade routes? Can a technology leap from Tunisia to Sicily if there are frequent merchant exchanges between them? More broadly, how the heck is trade modeled? :)

3) As I understand it, the population of Europe roughly doubled between 1000AD and 1300AD. A great deal of this success can be attributed to significant agricultural advancements like the adoption of the heavy plow and the three-field crop rotation system. Are the benefits you gain from agricultural technology going to be modest (for game balance reasons) or major (for historical accuracy)? Or does the game start off assuming that Western Europe already has a new technological edge that enables them to grow disproportionately to their neighbors?

There is no trade in the game. Population is represented indirectly by how many - and how developed - Holdings exist in a county. It does not affect the rate of innovation however. The initial tech levels will favour the Muslim world.
 
There is no trade in the game. Population is represented indirectly by how many - and how developed - Holdings exist in a county. It does not affect the rate of innovation however. The initial tech levels will favour the Muslim world.
Are the amount of holdings available to a province based on how large a population it would be able to support then? Or by how many people lived there historically?
 
Another good dev diary, thanks.

Wallain asks a very interesiting question, i would really like an answer too.

However, i'm kind of sad to hear that there is no trade in the game (except perhaps the one modelled by the Trading Practices tech)... it really bloomed in the second part of the Middle Ages.