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Well, it's been two weeks, so it's time for another bi-weekly entry in the saga of The Old Gods expansion for Crusader Kings II (we will ramp up the pace to weekly dev diaries from May 1). Today, I'll talk about what is, perhaps, the core feature of the expansion: raiding. All pagans have the option to raid, but it is especially important for Norse and Tengri rulers, who will start losing Prestige if they have been at peace for too long. Rather than declare a regular war, they can opt for some good old fashioned raiding.

CKII_ToG_DD_02_Heathen_Raid.png

So how does it work? It's easy; you simply raise an army, toggle it to raiding and move it to a suitable county. You cannot raid counties within the same realm as you, nor can you raid brothers of the faith, but everyone else is fair game. All counties now have a wealth bar that shows how much gold you can loot from the province. As long as your raiding army is standing in the province, it will drain the wealth bar. The loot is not taken from the treasury of the local ruler, but rather represents the possessions of the local clergy, burghers, farmers and lesser nobility. However, the top liege of the looted county will lose Prestige and all Holdings in a looted county will have a lower tax income until the bar has (slowly) replenished. Incidentally, all sieges (not just raiding) in a county will damage the wealth, but only raiders will get money from it.

CKII_ToG_DD_02_Loot_Bar.png

Loot from counties neighboring your own realm goes directly into your treasury, so looting farther afield is normally relatively pointless. However, Norse pagans have the option of raiding all coastal areas, no matter how distant. The problem is that such loot must be carried on ships and when the ships fill up, the raiders must return home and deposit the gold in the treasury. Initially, Norse fleets are also able to navigate many major rivers, like the Volga and the Seine, but when fort levels get too high in the adjacent counties, the rivers will become blocked off, representing fortified bridges and other key fortifications. Using the great eastern rivers and portages, the vikings are able to reach even the Caspian Sea.

The fort level in Holdings has another effect on raiding; it can protect a part of the wealth bar. Unfortunately for the defenders, this protection is of course lost if the raiders actually manage to occupy the local castles, cities and temples. Even worse, when raiders successfully siege down a Holding, there is a chance that some of its buildings are destroyed. In fact, the entire Holding can be razed to the ground, although this is a rare event. The raiders will get much loot from cracking open such golden eggs in addition to draining the wealth bar dry.

CKII_ToG_DD_02_Raid_on_Paris.png

The dynamic we have set up basically forces aggressive pagans (especially lower rank ones, like counts) to raid unless they want to live with negative Prestige. On the other hand, the gold and Prestige they get from raiding can be used to declare special wars, which I will talk about in the next developer diary (on April 17)!

Bonus:
A Paradox Development Studio Feature - Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods Highlights from the livestream:

Part 1
[video=youtube;eIX3zOChdgE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIX3zOChdgE[/video]

Part 2
[video=youtube;rysyfLfcpbw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rysyfLfcpbw[/video]
 
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But that's a game play feature not an accuracy one. The de jure system it's there so that the AI knows what to do.

Not the lack of Empires. When I'm king of Alan for exemple, I feel forced to go for the Byzantine Empire because Emperor is a logical RP objective. I'm glad this will be fixed with the Old gods though.
 
The worst thing, though, is that the Dev Diaries are officially bi-weekly >_>

It means twice the wait for the Old Gods, since they already announced there will be 7 DD.
 
Will the expansion modify the map of already existing games? Will it crash save games from 1.092?

oi, good question. I hope not (crashing)
 
The worst thing, though, is that the Dev Diaries are officially bi-weekly >_>

It means twice the wait for the Old Gods, since they already announced there will be 7 DD.

The DD's are supposed to turn weekly after 1st May.
Still, this is a bit annoying :/ Still better than no DD's yet though
 
The DD's are supposed to turn weekly after 1st May.
Still, this is a bit annoying :/ Still better than no DD's yet though

The longer, the more polished, I assume.
 
The worst thing, though, is that the Dev Diaries are officially bi-weekly >_>

It means twice the wait for the Old Gods, since they already announced there will be 7 DD.

Only until the beginning of May, so still releasing early-mid June at the very latest.
 
Well, it's been two weeks, so it's time for another bi-weekly entry in the saga of The Old Gods expansion for Crusader Kings II (we will ramp up the pace to weekly dev diaries from May 1).

So release date is going to be 1st or 2nd week in June?

Around one week between the last DD and the release, no?

We got our first DD on 20/03, the second on 3/04, so I believe we may expect the following:
3rd 17/04, 4th 1/05, 5th 8/05, 6th 15/05, 7th 22/05, and lauching of raids around the 29th of may.


Just hope they won't wait for the feast of St Edmund the martyr... :rolleyes:
 
I find it silly that pagans cannot loot further away than 1 province. The hungarians would loot by horse so far as Spain and anywhere inbetween. The norse itself would often loot places further in the mainland, I've read about they doing it something like more than 100 km away from the coast in England. Hopefully it can be modded into the game.

And muslims should be able to loot and pillage along the mediterranean just as well! It was really a big problem for the christians back then (specially when the muslims had control over the strategic islands there to serve as a safe haven).

But besides that, it sounds quite interesing! Just let them mod it a bit further. =)
 
NO. I'm sick of this excuse. People want ACCURACY, and accuracy IS fun. Ahistorical mechanics is game-breaking and ruins immersion. STOP

Well, YOU want accuracy. That's more of an annoyance to me; I like it when it does not mess with gameplay, but when it does, it surely is an annoyance to me. I really dislike, for exemple, how empire system forces you to conquer a given set of lands and how few empires are there. This means, if you want to become Emperor, games are very redundant one eachother.

No, Jokolytic is very, very, very far from being alone on the subject.
There's only to look at the suggestions made by forumers: they just want to play different games, often speak about history, and this is given by the possibility to play as different cultures, having different mechanisms according to history.
Paradox makes great strategy games, based on history, this being balanced with fun and enjoyment expected in a video game. Having Orthodox crusades wouldn't be history anymore, it seems that's clear.

But you may have much less accuracy and less fantasy, with the Game of Thrones mod, for example! I personally prefer a lot history, but there is to reckon that's a wonderful amount of work, and lot of people seem to enjoy it a lot. Ever tried?

There's also this other mod (EDIT: got it, and I think there's another one) permitting to begin the game without any duke, king or emperor. I can't remember its name, but it really exists and is not that difficult to find.
 
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I'm pretty sure vikings raided other Norse pagans. You might want to change it to just being not allowed to raid lands in the same realm. In fact, Christians would often raid farmlands and such if carrying out prolonged sieges was too risky. I think raiding should just be a general option for any army against hostile lands, and also be allowed in special circumstances, such as viking raids.
 
If the ship carries the loot in Nordic raiding, what carries the loot for a Tengri army?

From OP:
Loot from counties neighboring your own realm goes directly into your treasury, so looting farther afield is normally relatively pointless. However, Norse pagans have the option of raiding all coastal areas, no matter how distant.

I.e. Tengri can only really loot neighboring provinces, where the loot is automatically carried over the border.
 
Yeah, Doomdark managed to answer many of the questions asked these last two weeks. Quite a piece of art about that!
(and, by the way, thanks a lot for 'my' fortified bridges, for Lotharingia/Francia occidentalis/Francia orientalis, county of Mortain and so on!)

However, I have to say I worry a lot--and it seems I'm not alone--about the raids and looting.

I just hope this was a wrong way to expose the whole thing. How could this be even enjoyable to see raids all over the map, only really allowed to Vikings? The creation of the Holy Roman Empire is linked to the battle of Lechfeld, in 955, near Augsburg: Otto I wins the battle over the Magyars, is hailed as an Emperor by his troops, and access the rank of Emperor, accorded by the pope as a recognition of his role as a defensor of Christianity (among a lot of other political worries for him).

Just look at this screenshot. How may Magyars come to Augsburg, to the Rhine valley, to Southern Italia... if their interest for raids and easy money is limited to a very few counties?

Another example: at the beginning of the Hundred Year War--this very period enlighted by the last date of 01/01/1337 in game--Edward III was unable to face the French army, because he lacked manpower. What strategy did he choosed? Chevauchées! That's nothing more than a raid, something like burnt-earth policy applied to the ennemy territory.
Eddy feeled--wrongly as the following would show--that his army was unable to conquer territories, then just pillaged, looted and burned everything he could find, hoping for a psychological impact on the French populations, which were supposed to reckon him as a new king, because the Capetians and the French lords were unable to defend them. But no raids?

So please, Doomdark. Either you was kidding (would be a good mean to keep on with the expectations, after all: video game economy also comprises a part of commercial management!), or you didn't expected us to look at this sentence in peculiar when you wrote all of this. No criticism here, just asking...

Thanks in advance for your answer!
 
I think that what I love most about this game and Paradox in general, is that they keep iterating on the product you bought. CK2 is just so much richer with all of the expansions. They don't overcharge you, they give you features free in patches, and if you wait for the right time they sell it to you for pennies (okay, just really really reduced prices.

Thanks for the updated. I'm sorry that I have to wait another two weeks for an update about the game, but you've answered quite a few questions here. Can't wait to try out the raiding mechanics. The only fear I have is that the pagan mechanics allow for the capture of power way too quickly for the player. On the livestream the independents peoples were trampled over in order to form the kingdom of Norway. Though there are going to be powers that will be too powerful to take head on (France, Byzantines) I worry about the much smaller duchies being swallowed up too quickly.

Can't wait for more info!
 
The worst thing, though, is that the Dev Diaries are officially bi-weekly >_>
It means twice the wait for the Old Gods, since they already announced there will be 7 DD.
Not quite, the dev diaries will become weekly:
Well, it's been two weeks, so it's time for another bi-weekly entry in the saga of The Old Gods expansion for Crusader Kings II (we will ramp up the pace to weekly dev diaries from May 1).

This means that the seventh (and thus last) dev diary will be published on May 22, after which we can expect the release in a week or so, so most likely before the end of May.
 
Step one sack Paris.
Step two sack Rome.
Step three unite Scandinavia.
Step four sack Paris, Rome, Genoa and Venice.
Step five sack Constantinople and Cairo.
Game Over
 
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