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I don't understand. Why narrow the scope of this dlc so much, to only 5 republic? What prevents inland republic from working exactly with these mechanics? I mean the sea trade isn't exactly the only trade existing, and republic aren't necessarily all about trade.
Right now it seems more like Crusader Kings II: The Republic-but-wait-only-five-of-them-and-only-those-bordering-a-seacost. Also you can invest in golden toilet seats for your super palace which totally makes you more powerful!

I mean come on I love you paradox but this seems a bit disappointing here.

This, I mean sure it might be a bit boring without the tradepost mechanics, but so is playing a feudal ruler in Iceland, just let the player decide if it is boring or not. The succession and politics sound fun enough even without the maritime mechanics
 
I think the title of this DLC is a bit misleading; it seems to focus on maritime merchant republics rather than republics in general. I don't have a problem with this focus, but I'd preferred it was a bit more on the tin.
 
I think the title of this DLC is a bit misleading; it seems to focus on maritime merchant republics rather than republics in general. I don't have a problem with this focus, but I'd preferred it was a bit more on the tin.

Yes... I hope it would be moddable to make other Republics at least playable (without coast or as counties) if they don't plan to make a DLC for them...
 
Great to see the progress!

Will the landed nobles around the republics be able to influence the elections? And will the republics affect the landed nobles beyond marriage? (ex. Venice supports some king in a big war with ships and soldiers)
 
Although I would have liked more republics, especially more diverse ones (not just Italian and Baltic Sea), this seems to be a good start nonetheless. But if Muslims get a piety boost for kicking out merchants, shouldn't the Byzantines get a prestige boost for kicking out the Genoese or especially the Venetians, considering all the problems they had with them?


I mean just look at the Massacre of the Latins which was sparked by hatred of Venetian and Genoan traders, who would as well cause trouble in the Latin Quarter of Constantinople, while nothing like this ever happened in the Middle East, seems a bit tunnel visioned. Needless to say I hope there are strong events and connections between the Byzantine Empire and the Italian banking families, with the 4th Crusade , misdirected by the Venetians, relations with the Egyptian Red Sea Trade (Genoa and Venice were represented here), and of course in giving out loans to bankrupt feudal lords.

Also it would be cool to see trade modifiers, like Sound Tolls in EU3, for example controlling both sides of the Bosporus with trade posts gives a percentage trade increase, or having 5 trade posts along the Levant and/or in Egypt, would give your extra relations and a trade boost in the area.
 
This addon cries for an "Pirates Addon" playing with famous pirates characters like Klaus Störtebecker, owning their own strongholds. A threat to the ships of the powerful Hanseatic League which they attacked and robbed..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Störtebeker ;)

It is fun because the Victual Brothers are mercenaires in the game. They possess the particularity to be the only mercenaries who provide both troops and ships. In my last game they were 3600 men with 36 ships.

I'm still confused about the 'Only 5' thing. Waiting so badly for next DDs to make up my mind about all of this.
 
I'm hoping that they'll include a province modifier so that modders can "flag" provinces as coastal. This would allow modders to put merchant republics in places like Hormuz (I don't think the coasts of the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf default as coastal, I'm guessing they're "inland") and the Russian rivers (which were quite capable of carrying maritime tribe).

Doesn't have to be in vanilla, I just think it would be a really nice modding tool.
 
Disappointed at the lack of playable minor republics, but otherwise looking extremely good- I look forward to domination as La Serenissima :).
 
Okay. Relax when you do a video diary.... you look like your about to be shot. Although lying is bad, reading the script in semi-monotone is a close second.

Btw, nice clothes. Was there a pretty girl waiting for you after this XD

Otherwise, it seems great :)
 
Okay. Relax when you do a video diary.... you look like your about to be shot. Although lying is bad, reading the script in semi-monotone is a close second.

Btw, nice clothes. Was there a pretty girl waiting for you after this XD

Otherwise, it seems great :)
Maybe he was held hostage and this is a call for help! :O To the modmobile!
 
Make the capital of a province and it becomes a republic. Like these. So no, it is not hardcoded at all.
So why are only five republics playable then? Are not Ragusa and Ancona capitals of their counties during the game, just not in 1066..

The reality is... You also need a duchy of higher title. So only make them coastal doesn't help. You also must give them a duchy. Costal, county republics aren't playable :(
 
The reason they dont include it is because the naval ai of paradox is the worst paradox ai.
Im still wondering how they will pull it of in eu4. if they find 'the cure' there ,than maybe could we see something alongside navalcombat in ck2 later. Besides ,navalcombat is MORE important in the periods after ck2.
 
Well how many independent muslim republics do you know ? Even Cordoba was a republic under a feudal lord and his goodwill as far as i understand.
Thats not a republic, rather wishfull thinking and it lasted exactly how long ? 60 years or something?

Well, the Rashidun Caliphate itself was a republic early on, with its leaders being elected (indeed, this is something of a catalyst for the Sunni/Shiite split). More current to Crusader King's time is the works of al-Farabi, who advocated for an ideal Islamic state with a democratic government. There's also the tradition of Shura (consultation), which can be (and has been) interpreted as support for democratic/republican ideals.

It's true there isn't a lot of others (though what constitutes a "republic" is always contentious), but that's why Cordoba is so interesting - a spontaneous development of a republic state in the Islamic world, when that hadn't been the norm since the Rashidun Caliphate. While it did fall soon after game start, that is avoidable (it was due to a civil war between the original founder's grandsons, leading them first to start trying to strip the democratic powers from the republic to bolster themselves and then one of them to invite the emir of Seville's troops in to help him, which predictably ended badly for Cordoba's independence). Merchant-wise, however, the Islamic world was booming, and the Karimi merchants controlled much of the entire world's trade at this time (and pre-crusades, had notable Jews and Copts amongst them).

It'd take several tweaks on the Italian system to represent this adequately, but that's precisely why I find it disappointing the Republics DLC doesn't. While it'll undoubtedly be easy to mod to include Cordoba and any other Islamic republics, the system, flavour events, etc. are all going to be for Western European Catholic republics - and to be honest, primarily for Italian republics as Gotland was minor and the Hansa doesn't exist at start date. I didn't expect a full, in-depth treatment of Islamic commerce and assumed Venice and Genoa were always going to be the stars of the show, but some flavour and enhancement for Islamic merchants would have been a welcome addition, and paved the way for some goodies for non-Abrahamic republics when that DLC comes out. Now, obviously, if they are not playable and not meant to be playable, it seems very unlikely there'll be much if any thought into how non-Catholic republics should even work (ie, considering how it impacts Muslim decadence mechanics), much less flavour events et al.

I'm not upset at Paradox for doing it - it seems they came up with a system tailored pretty much to only represent a very limited number of maritime merchant republics, and therefore applied it only to them, which is understandable as far as it goes. I'm just disappointed that at present, that cuts out the possibility of meaningful gameplay mechanics for other republics. The only one of those five I'd even consider playing is Gotland, and it's easily the least historically justified inclusion, so that makes the DLC a lot more unattractive to me, unfortunately. Perhaps later down the track a more inclusive look at republics will happen too.