Crusader Kings II - post about a future update

[GUmby_Aaron]

Since you have clout with those other PDS games and this is the ckii forum. can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the customized game settings feature that ckii has brilliantly come up with and incorporate it into the other PDS titles. That entire Conclave Shattered Retreat debacle made you learn from that mistake and develop this wonderful feature but why on earth have you not taken it over to the other games you offer. Shouldn't you allow all your players to adopt game rules/policies/dlc to their liking the same way they can do in ckii unless you really didn't learn from that mistake.

 

[loup99]

Since you have clout with those other PDS games and this is the ckii forum.

Why are you suggesting this here? The game rules suggestion belongs to the respective suggestions forums of the other PDS games, so that the respective teams for those games can be aware of it. The CK2 team of developers work on CK2.

 

[Joal ban Kluane]

In-game, if you mouse over a feature not available to you (certain religions, characters, disabled screens, etc) the mouse-over text could say. "This feature is added in the XYZ expansion, click to learn more". That way, it places all of the actual intrusion to only happen when the player wants to see it, while not affecting everyday play.

While there were some good comments about not crossing the line to "in-game advertising", and also, while I have all CK2 extensions, making me not a target of such an idea, I do find this to be somewhat useful: if I get into a game with the complexity of CK2, and want to do something, but cannot, I would probably appreciate to know that I can do it if I had XYZ extension. However, this should be an "opt-in" mechanism only (i.e. I only get it because I asked for it explicitly in the options). This way, it woudln't be "blatant advertising", but rather "helpful advice".

However, I understand this was not proposed by OP. And it is probably something I wouldn't use myself since I tend to buy most Pdx games' DLCs within a month or two of them going out at most (often pre-order, actually).

 

[Ashlantean]

I like this idea a lot. Being able to access contextual information for each DLC in-game will be immensely helpful. I like that it seems to offer a kind of useful curation 'This DLC does this, here are some good starts for it, here are some DLC's that are good to have with it'. 'Which DLC's to get' is an endlessly recurring post across the various CK2 communities online and if this helps more people all to the good.

I am curious at how this information will be provided/accessed once you're on the main menu in-game though. While I do think this will be helpful to a lot of people, to others it might appear differently because their problem has never been information - it is price and the number of individual items they need/wish to buy. It really will have to be unobtrusive to keep everyone happy I fear.

 

[Uggh]

While there were some good comments about not crossing the line to "in-game advertising", and also, while I have all CK2 extensions, making me not a target of such an idea, I do find this to be somewhat useful: if I get into a game with the complexity of CK2, and want to do something, but cannot, I would probably appreciate to know that I can do it if I had XYZ extension. However, this should be an "opt-in" mechanism only (i.e. I only get it because I asked for it explicitly in the options). This way, it woudln't be "blatant advertising", but rather "helpful advice".

However, I understand this was not proposed by OP. And it is probably something I wouldn't use myself since I tend to buy most Pdx games' DLCs within a month or two of them going out at most (often pre-order, actually).

I just bought this game with only some DLC, and was wondering about the Societies tab. Now that I additionally got M&M it suddenly became useful. Some mouse-over hint , however, would have spared me all that wondering...

 

[Visigothic]

I don't like the idea of advertising being in-game at all. I don't even like the little bit you already have at the main menu whenever there's new content out. If you're going to do this, please include an option to disable it.

 

[Chrispim]

Hello.

So far, I approve of the modifications proposed to the launcher and the description screen for each DLC. CK2 is a long-lasting game with much content and it will be great for new and veterans alike to peruse those information.

Thanks for adding this

PS: I'd be happy to test it and provide feedback for you.

 

[Sirrebirre]

That's why I hate when marketing people start interfering with the game itself. That's really not a great idea. Maybe if you guys organize better the Steam store page that could be solved. (I know it was re-organized last year, but it can still be improved. For once the store page for an expansion could actually list all the features in detail. For example, Jade Dragon says 'eight new causus beli: you can never have enough'...that doesn't say anything at all, which causus beli are those?How can I use them?Who can use them? People who do not follow the dev diaries would have a hard time finding information like this whether you guys shove DLC ads into the game or not)

Also, the in game 'new content avaiable' is enough advert already. Fix the store page, give as many information as possible....and maybe (this is a long time longing I have) stop calling a bunch of cosmetic stuff 'content pack'. Those are not 'content' they are just make-up for the game.


and How about Paradox starts considering to condesate old DLC into the base game? That would make the DLC store page less 'dauting'. I have all DLC for CK2 and EUIV and I bet loyal players wouldn't be bothered if previous expansions were to be integrated into the base game.(I certainly wouldn't) ( and that would only make the game better in the long run).

What makes you assume this idea comes from the "marketing people" and not the game team working on CK II?

 

[Sirrebirre]

DLC icons look too big compared to character portrait, especially on Trison Detsen.

The images are mock ups and may not represent the final version of this experiment. I'll check if I can post other images closer to the actual implementation.

 

[marcelodcs]

What makes you assume this idea comes from the "marketing people" and not the game team working on CK II?

Well, it certainly didn't help that the bringer of such dreadful idea was the Product ---Marketing --- Manager, aka you. Anyway, I already voiced my worries. I have enough trust in Paradox to not drop the ball.


Btw, the FREE forever CK2 was a genius play, specially for a "ancient" game like CK2(I assume it was some marketing strategy to boost CK2 end life DLC sales). Well done. I have never seen that many people playing CK2 haha(116k+). I wonder how many people will convert, actually learn the game and like it enough to buy the expansions.

 

[Admiral_Obvious]

Well, it certainly didn't help that the bringer of such dreadful idea was the Product ---Marketing --- Manager, aka you. Anyway, I already voiced my worries. I have enough trust in Paradox to not drop the ball.


Btw, the FREE forever CK2 was a genius play, specially for a "ancient" game like CK2(I assume it was some marketing strategy to boost CK2 end life DLC sales). Well done. I have never seen that many people playing CK2 haha(116k+). I wonder how many people will convert, actually learn the game and like it enough to buy the expansions.
View attachment 357459

Considering the significant increase of the average number of posts on the Steam forum, mostly about learning the game, or which DLC to buy, I'd assume a lot.

 

[Kobrakai]

I wonder how many people will convert, actually learn the game and like it enough to buy the expansions.

I picked up the game at the weekend when it was free. Now a week later I have 45 hours playtime and so far I have bought 3 of the expansions. I would never have bought CKII had it not been free, now there's a good chance I will buy other Paradox titles in the future like EU4.

 

[Serenity84]

Paradox are like drug dealers. Give away a sample for free, get people hooked and then let them pay. It was a brilliant move

 

[Thorbimorbi]

What makes you assume this idea comes from the "marketing people" and not the game team working on CK II?

Right, how could anybody who had the displeasure to spend any amount of time in the corporate world think that a horrible idea, that will probably antagonize a large chunk of the player base, would come from marketing. /s

On an entirely related note, I find it hard to keep a semblance of a civil tone in reacting to this. I not just don't like it, I HATE THE VERY IDEA.
I lock down every device I own to shut down advertising, and the advertisments on the menu screen are already pissing me off every time I have to see them.
If you abuse your software to shove any more advertisements down my throat, I promise you that I will never spend another cent on any Paradox product.

 

[Keizer Harm]

Right, how could anybody who had the displeasure to spend any amount of time in the corporate world think that a horrible idea, that will probably antagonize a large chunk of the player base, would come from marketing. /s

On an entirely related note, I find it hard to keep a semblance of a civil tone in reacting to this. I not just don't like it, I HATE THE VERY IDEA.
I lock down every device I own to shut down advertising, and the advertisments on the menu screen are already pissing me off every time I have to see them.
If you abuse your software to shove any more advertisements down my throat, I promise you that I will never spend another cent on any Paradox product.

Dude, I think you are extremely overreacting, but do check out this mod anyway:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=913374112
Ironman compatible. You'll never have to get it "shoved down your throat" again.

 

[Sirrebirre]

Well, it certainly didn't help that the bringer of such dreadful idea was the Product ---Marketing --- Manager, aka you. Anyway, I already voiced my worries. I have enough trust in Paradox to not drop the ball.


Btw, the FREE forever CK2 was a genius play, specially for a "ancient" game like CK2(I assume it was some marketing strategy to boost CK2 end life DLC sales). Well done. I have never seen that many people playing CK2 haha(116k+). I wonder how many people will convert, actually learn the game and like it enough to buy the expansions.
View attachment 357459

Gottcha. I appreciate your honesty, thanks.

Glad to hear that you like our efforts to promote the game. Yeah, it's something we will look into once enough time have passed.

 

[vukica]

Gottcha. I appreciate your honesty, thanks.

Glad to hear that you like our efforts to promote the game. Yeah, it's something we will look into once enough time have passed.

Do you have a goal/expectation for "retention" level among new players, e.g. 20% new users buying DLC or something like that?
Or is the goal already met by getting market information for future similar actions?

 

[Keizer Harm]

Do you have a goal/expectation for "retention" level among new players, e.g. 20% new users buying DLC or something like that?
Or is the goal already met by getting market information for future similar actions?

So far it seems about 85% of new users has already left: https://steamdb.info/graph/?compare=203770,236850
That still leaves over double the original amount of users, though. I imagine many of them bought DLC.

 

[Atepa]

I'm really not seeing people's issues with this. Currently in the game if you want to play as a Horse Lord for example you need to have the "Horse Lords DLC", if you don't when you select a province led by one of those factions you get a little red script that says something to the effect of "You require the Horse Lords DLC to choose this faction" or something similar. (I'm not at home so I can't confirm the exact verbiage)

My understand of what is being proposed is that instead of that little line of text, which is a pain to read, and not very noticeable you'll now get a little pop-up that it requires a certain DLC. Ideally there would be a small section for it with just that, and if you wanted more information you can get the bigger picture they have sampled in the game, or go right to the steam workshop, or just close out the window and pick a different ruler.

 

[Kazanov]

I think we need another "free Ck2" promotion on Steam, this game its awesome and we need to get more converts to it , also, we can have a bundle for those dlc that arent really dlc, just novelas that nobody reads?, i do not like the pop up and i have every dlc on my game, but these useless pdf with ck2 songs attached to them always reminds me that i do not have everything

Right, how could anybody who had the displeasure to spend any amount of time in the corporate world think that a horrible idea, that will probably antagonize a large chunk of the player base, would come from marketing. /s

I work on a ONG, aaand, yes, the ideas that antagonize the workers AND the customers always come from marketing, its like they do not know the real world after spending so many hours in a office and in front of a computer xD