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Aetius

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This is a blatant rip off of von Murrin's FAQ thread in the HOI forum. I have put together what I could find on the Crusader King's details in different threads, the official information is a bit sketchy though. As far as I have found Greven and Sergei have been the ones providing "off the record" information on the thread. Johan, Patric and Boreal_S have not really revealed anything outside the official release info.

On possible release date(s):
at the moment there is no official release date for the game. everything you may spot is a speculation :D and heresy :D:D
~ Sergei, CK Producer


On timespan in game
1066-1453, game starts after battle of Hastings (not direct quotes but both from Greven)

Savegames can then be converted to EU2!

On scenarios
- The main game will have one grand campaign starting in 1066. A couple of months thereafter, we're aiming at giving away 2 or 3 additional scenarios. ~ sergei

On geographic span and details
- The map is limited to Europe, stretching roughly to the Urals in the east and including parts of Persia and the Arabian Peninsula as well as the coast of North Africa. SGO Preview.
- Iceland is in, Greenland is not in game (Aetius note)...from historical reasons.
- Secondly its not Bohuslän or Båhuslän as the Fortress of Bohus was not yet built. Its called Viken in the old scrolls. Greven
- Provinces ... are quite a bit smaller than in EU. SGO Preview.
- Comment by Alzate
Last but not least, I expect that you maintain the idea of reducing EU2 provinces. if not, spain and Italy will not be that interesting: 3 counties in portugal, 3 in the holy land...
Heh! No fear not Brave Knight the provinces have been broken down. Greven

On playable countries
You can play...
1)Christian Empires
2)Christian Kingdoms
3) Christian Independent Duchies (ie non-vassals at start)
- You play a Dynasty, but dynasties control land. Greven
- Non-Christians non-playable... Hmm... In the release it is so... But... ... ... ... ... ;) ~ sergei

Hmm...As I said in some other post....RL Feudalism hierarchy was a mishmash created from an ideal situation changed by 'Realpolitik'. Now in a game we need a stringent and doable system thus we will use a three tier Ideal system. This means that a powerless dynasty officially titled duch or even a Petty King will be treated as a Count. Thus not playable. Greven

Question from Wasa: What about the Papacy?
Not playable, but controllable... Greven

Sergei's comment:
imagine having a choice of whether to start for one of the 20-30 Russian princes and attempt to unite before the Horde arrives to provide adequate defence...
Aetius comment on the above: Sergei's comment is from a discussion on the Mongols. His comment has been cut to avoid confusion in case that the Mongols, which are unplayable, are thought to be playable. The question remains if there are 20-30 Russian principalities in the game.

Sergei's comment on the Mongols:
Re: Mongols in CK, Boreal and Joakim (aka "Greven"-Aetius) are really much up to date with the topic than I am -- all I can say is that the Horde is unplayable for a number of reasons, including the difference in structure of the state that wouldn't fall well with the European ones. Then again, you must consider the whole scope of Horde's invasion -- if we exclude from the game China and Asia, we give Mongols an easy time, a walk in the park I may add.

On diplomacy
Comment by Pishtaco:
I hope it's a cat-herding game. Maybe you have a little territory, and a little army (although you can take command of larger armies, and pray that they will obey you reliably) but mostly you have a load of vassal families who you can give goals to and hope that they act accordingly. The same with the Orders, if you give them enough money or are prestigious enough.
This I think is a good description of the situation. Greven

Next pope
the Cardinals choose every Pope. Greven

On orders militant:
Sorry but there is was unfortenantly a bad formulation in the overview text. You cannot play it as a country as they are organizations and not dynasties. However, your dynasty can take control of an Order. Greven
You control them indirectlyGreven
Question by Surcouf:
a kind of like vassalship in eu?
Answer:
Yes but more control. Greven
Replying to a question from Onslaught:
If you mean granting fiefs (to orders militant) as was done historically then these fiefs would be too small to be represented on the map.Greven

On crusades:
You can go crusade independently if you want to Greven

Conquest
There is no such thing (a temporary CB) in CK. You must have a claim to get a CB for a war that give you a vassal or demesne. Certain *things* may give you non-claim CB's but then you can only get tribute. There are no Peace Treaties with penalties for war mainly because the prerequisites for war will be much tougher in CK than in for example EU2. Greven
Basically if you defeat another ruler you might get his vassals. That is either that his old vassal become your vassal or that you install your own vassal there. At some occasions you may turn a conquered province into a Demesne Province (which is approximately as EU2 owned provinces). Though you never hold many Demesne provinces.
The important change is that you must have a claim on a province to get it at all. Greven

Raising Armies
- The military forces are raised at the county level, each county producing an indivisible regiment (the composition depending on the culture, social groups, and other factors unique the county), which then are grouped into armies. Sonny quoting from the game info-link
- Each province can generate a Regiment. The troop type composition and its n : o men will depend upon the province... Is it rich? What terrain type? What did it historically produce (troop type)? What manpower level does the province have? This will give us a great varity of Regiments. Note also that provincial attrition will stand in relation to these values. ~ Greven
- Social groups....You can influence the balance of power between them...thus you can influence the composition of the provincial regiment... Greven
- Also can the monarch recruit troops on his own? Other than mercenaries of course. Sonny
- No except the Royal Host of course...This make it such importance to go along with your vassals...I mean if your vassals don't turn up... Greven

- There are far more troop types available as well ? heavy cavalry, light horse, archers, heavy infantry, pikemen, and siege trains will populate your armies. Like a giant game of rock-paper-scissors, all will require special employment to reach their most useful potential. Combat itself will be a variation on EU?s theme, a linear progression of phases with certain units able to participate in each phase in turn. SGO preview


On campaigning
Wasa's comment:
All armies should be disbanded off-season.
They are...If not...you have bought it a supply train for the winter... Supply Trains are....Luxuries...by the way..... Greven

On Family and Dynasty:
- There is a dynastic system Greven
- Historical characters are for 1066, after that dynasties breed random children ~ sergei
- Prestige & Piety belong to Dynasty. One mighty character might absorb much but if he has mibehaiving heirs, they can spend it down the drain :). ~ sergei
- When you start in 1066, you not only have ca. 1000 actual characters around, you also have their family trees down some four or five generations (major pain in research since the earlier you go, the more contradictions so you need to triple-check things). This way you don't start with a new, clean page. You already have legitimate, historical claims, relations, etc. ~ sergei
- The goal of the game is to amass as much Prestige and Piety as possible for your dynasty.SGO Preview.
- Question from Drakken:
Shall CK include a button or a screen where we can see our dynasty family tree, so we may check the overwhelming complexity of nobiliar dynsties with marriage, descendants and lines of succession?
Answer:
Yupp...and skills, fertility, age, titles, Personal Traits etc. No more commetns on this one though. Greven
- Comment from Dorsey4Heisman:
- It has been suggested that there is a sort of inheritablity for traits in CK. Education of heirs should also be included imho.
Answer:
I heard somebody saying that we have an education system in the game, and that there are three options, and that each has advantges and drawbacks but not simple & linear -- rather wisely devised by Boris to be more life-like, and that we will not reveal how each works but you will have to play and see for yourself what it does to your heirs... Just a rumour, you know :). ~ sergei
- Kids CAN and WILL grow into enemies, just remember the Spanish history. So having many sons on one hand is good -- a better chance to select the brightest among them to hand the power to, but also very risky as you have to anticipate the actions of the other ones. ~ sergei

Vassals
Question by Alzate
Does it mean that you will have a pool of vassals to pick & reward?
Yes, its called your 'Court'. Greven

Social Groups
...provinces will have four social groups: Nobles, Clergy, Burghers and Peasants. Each with a Power value and a Loyalty value. So provinces with large and powerful cities, and of course Trade Republics will have very powerful Burghers in their provinces. Greven
Musings by Euro-Maniac
I think you should get an economic boost for more burghers or perhaps a naval boost as well?
I think you should get a tax reduction for clergy, but a technological boost. I think also you should gain more popularity and control over the Vatican and perhaps later the HRE because of the clergy advantage. Perhaps your clergy can be elected Pope or HRE?
Peasants I think should at least maintain tax value, and if more increase it.
Nobles should probably give a boost to military with cavalry especially, also they should give a boost in diplomacy as well. I think Nobles should also cause trouble, revolt risks perhaps if an unfriendly noble? Also if a noble is present in a province you could hire mercenaries there?


Most of these thingies are in... Greven

Domestic sliders
Comment by Clemens August
Real laws rather than domestic policy sliders would be far better. Domestic Policy Sliders are too abstract and offer little historical detail. Laws/edicts do. Domestic Policy Sliders are the easy way out, but certainly not the best.
It could have been far worse.. The absolutely easiest solution of hardcoded country stats.
Johan
Comment by Clemens August
So this means there are sliders in CK? I think a more tangible system of laws/edicts/decrees would be far more fun. Nobles, peasants or the clergy would start demand certain measures risking internal destabilization and revolt, should these demands not be met. Some measures would be popular with the burghers, but be abolutely hated by the nobility. BTW, the Antikgames' lineup have laws/edicts and hence for their own medieval game, Great Invasions.
You do realise that these are all ideas which we had implemented in Svea Rike3.. Balancing the four social classes against each other with edicts and laws, and also through events was the chore of the non-military part of that game. Crusader Kings will have all these aspects, but of a deeper detail. And which I discussed in deep detail with Mr.Thibault last time I met him. It seems he learned something there and I hope his game will become good too
Johan

COTs perhaps replaced?
Comment by Clemens August
The COTs are a crap system for a game.
It has its flaws. EU2 uses the original COT system designed by Philippe Thibault, and we have not had the time to redesign a new system until now.
Johan

Music and Sound
- If Johan allows me, I will comment on the musical score for Crusader Kings. For now, I can assure you it will be in MP3 format. And similar in style, yet VERY different from EU2. More tol follow... Fredrik
- All sound effects will be new. Fredrik
- I have heard the music when I was visiting the Ruler of the North, and it is great. I wish I could tell more but Johan's hands are far-reaching and deadly ;). Rest assured however that compared to EUII, CK's soundtrack is a way, way above. You will be surprised by who and what is there. ~ sergei
- (...) a very very good score. with passion. with imagination. the person writing the music is not only a superb composer but also very much personally involved in the topic. ~ sergei
- I bet half of you (jez, even more!) on this forum know this chap's music and heard at least two or three pieces. He is, like, quite famous :). ~ sergei

User interface
- you can redefine all hotkeys in the game however you like. If after beta-testing we see most configs tuned to Space for Pause, we will do so in the default settings, but again, think of it like Quake: if there's an action accessible, you can redefine the key/click. ~ sergei
- just to give the idea, on the sidebar we have access to main menu, acess to 4 separate fullscreen modes (fam tree/char/ religion/hist book) and to 5 sidebar modes + map, zoom controls and the sidebar space for all the context-based info. ~ sergei

Province Improvements
- There will not be Manufactories as in EU, but there will be Provincial Buildings much like the City buildings in the old Civ-series. ~ Greven

Cultures/"Way of life"
- Each province in CK has a culture that can be changed as the conqueror assimilates it, the larger the province the longer the change. Culture affects many things, including even taxes. Cultures are different visually (different Town Icons). Cultures have names. ~ sergei
- Yes, when you conquer there is a transition period. Yes, it depends on the size of the province you captured (if you swallow too much, shouldn't you run the risk of having *your* culture dissolved in the newly accepted heritage?). ~ sergei
- Gentlemen, there are 11 culture types in the game. This number is final and will not change. Moreover, we have already finalised the art for each of those (and that is a lot of mighty art, but you will see the screenies soon enough =) ). ~ sergei
- I think it is important to keep in mind the sole purpose of having a "culture" in the game -- not to define religion (for it is separate, and Samoeds can be too devout Christians!), not to define language or administrative borders, but to define a mindset, a way of life, a set of views and values and customs. ~ sergei
- Culture is less meaningful than Religion indeed (difference in Religion means considerable loss in net tax, some impact on manpower too). But Teutonic Ruler won't get so harsh penalties in tax or in manpower in newly vassalised Mediterranean or Roman province. Culture difference is vital for loyalties - remember why Laungedoc was leaning towads Spanish neighbours? So having your Culture spread through the world is a must for those who want to build a steady empire with loyal Dukes. But, wait, who doesn't want that? ~ Borealis



Additional information is available from websites that have been posted, I see no reason to add the information here:
Official page:
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/crusader.asp
Posted by Spooky:
Strategy Gaming Online preview
Strategy Gaming Online interview with Doomdark and Greven
Posted by Fate
http://www.gamesdomain.com/news/7310.html
Sergei has generously provided this opportunity to brush up on your Russian:
http://www.snowball.ru/forums/?board=crusaders
I, for one, regret that I have let my Russian skills deterioate so far I can't make out enough to translate it. Anyone willing to pm me a translation or post one here?
If anyone get more information out of Snowball or Paradox in the forum or for that matter identify the forum names used by Snowball (apart from Sergei and Boreal_s), please post it so I can include it in the "faq".
 
Last edited by a moderator:

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http://www.gamesdomain.com/news/7310.html

Gamesdomain gives CK a release date in Q3 of 2002.


I've been reading through some of the posts on the Snowball fourm (mainly the ones posted by the user Snowball), and it seems they have a different view.

To quote Snowball:

"À êîãäà "òîò ïàðåíü" ïëàíèðóåò ñþäà ïåðåíåñòè ÷àñòü
êîíñòðóêòèâíîãî îáñóæäåíèÿ äåòàëåé èññëåäîâàíèé? :) Íàïðèìåð, íà îäèí õîä óïåðåä Âëàäèìèðà, ÷òîáû åìó áûëî ? "

This is a very bad translation, from AltaVista. Bear with me, but you get the idea....

In " the crusaders " to test we will be for long and it is persistent, so that beginning 2003 is more real.
 
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unmerged(485)

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Originally posted by Fate
http://www.gamesdomain.com/news/7310.html

Gamesdomain gives CK a release date in Q3 of 2002.


I've been reading through some of the posts on the Snowball fourm (mainly the ones posted by the user Snowball), and it seems they have a different view.

To quote Snowball:

"À êîãäà "òîò ïàðåíü" ïëàíèðóåò ñþäà ïåðåíåñòè ÷àñòü
êîíñòðóêòèâíîãî îáñóæäåíèÿ äåòàëåé èññëåäîâàíèé? :) Íàïðèìåð, íà îäèí õîä óïåðåä Âëàäèìèðà, ÷òîáû åìó áûëî ? "

This is a very bad translation, from AltaVista. Bear with me, but you get the idea....

In " the crusaders " to test we will be for long and it is persistent, so that beginning 2003 is more real.

Guess that means they don't feel they will be ready to release the game 'til early 2003. Hope that's not the case though.:(
 

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Originally posted by Crook


That's what it says, however, Christmas season of 2002 and early 2003 are the same ;)

Not to me they aren't. Christmas season starts Thanksgiving weekend and I have four entire days to play the game - I was in heaven when EU II came out last year. Hoping to duplicate that with CK this year.:)
 

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on release dates

I just spotted the AltaVista translation here (God if you only knew where that piece of quote belonged originally ;) ) and to clarify the things, so far we're on track for end of this year and ahead of schedule on 1 out of 3 major directions (Boreal and Greven are true heroes here, the amount of reserach & design already done is outstanding to say the least).

However should somebody ask me to give a guaranteed release date, or a date for early beta-testing, I should spell 2003 and sleep safely :). We would rather release earlier than suggested and make you happy with the game on the shelf than make you happy with the promises of early release and have the release painfully shifting. Believe me, we know what a pisser it is to wait for October 21st to go & get that box, then wake up to find it's shipping in January now.

So please think of it as Q1 2003. If we make the game happen ahead of that, great. In either case we will not release it until it's good enough and Greven & Boreal are happy, which could be a rather rare state to get them into :).
 

TeutonicKnight

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Not to me they aren't. Christmas season starts Thanksgiving weekend and I have four entire days to play the game - I was in heaven when EU II came out last year. Hoping to duplicate that with CK this year.

LOL@Sonny, I am the same way and did the same :)
 

Ulyanov

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Originally posted by Fate
http://www.gamesdomain.com/news/7310.html

Gamesdomain gives CK a release date in Q3 of 2002.


I've been reading through some of the posts on the Snowball fourm (mainly the ones posted by the user Snowball), and it seems they have a different view.

To quote Snowball:

"À êîãäà "òîò ïàðåíü" ïëàíèðóåò ñþäà ïåðåíåñòè ÷àñòü
êîíñòðóêòèâíîãî îáñóæäåíèÿ äåòàëåé èññëåäîâàíèé? :) Íàïðèìåð, íà îäèí õîä óïåðåä Âëàäèìèðà, ÷òîáû åìó áûëî ? "

This is a very bad translation, from AltaVista. Bear with me, but you get the idea....

In " the crusaders " to test we will be for long and it is persistent, so that beginning 2003 is more real.



why don't you use http://www.translate.ru :)
 

Nikolai II

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Scenarios

Maybe not hard information, but Havard mentioned in this thread

http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119115

that there would be
a 1066 scenario (grand campaign?) set after the Battle of Hastings,
a 1187 (third crusade) likely set after the Battle of Hattin, but might be before.
and a 1337 one (Hundred Years War) Philippe V moves to confiscate Guyenne, Edward III renewes his claims on the French throne and moves against Flanders.


edited with more information/thoughts
 
Last edited:

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There are about a thousand playable entities in each scenario, and no there won't be any such texts, as they simply cost way too much to develop and include.
-Johan
------------------------------------------------------------
Each character has its own prestige/piety, 4 attributes, and loads of traits that can be on/off.. Traits include things like illness, cowardness etc.
-Johan
------------------------------------------------------------
Later, in responce to comments on post above:

I've never played any total war games, so dunno how those games work.. This is from the old design we had before the first team started in spring of 2001. (now the game is on its 3rd dev.team, this time I'm in charge of it..)
Prestige-Piety-Gold <-- Score-values (changing all the time.)
Martial, Diplomacy, Intrigue, Stewardship <-- Attributes
About 70 different traits that give benefits/penalties, some more examples are "Kinslayer", "Naive Wirepuller", "Lisp" In theory a char could have a rather large amount of traits.
-Johan
------------------------------------------------------------
On CK-->EU2 converter:

Its included, and its not a very time-consuming part to develop.
-Johan[/i

The conversion system will be in. I've been working today on it, and it will be a button called "EXPORT" which will make an eu2 eug file out of the current game.
-Johan
------------------------------------------------------------
its a tad bit difficult to have a large centralised state in CK
-Johan
------------------------------------------------------------
On who's producing the game:

We are still developing the Crusader Kings that is based on the idea we had from the very beginning. During the summer of 2003, in order to increase production speed, we moved production to an inhouse team.
-Johan
------------------------------------------------------------
On how much alike CK is to Snowball's earlier version:

Yes.. to a 95-99% degree.

For example.. Some changes have been done...
- We've added 2 new scenarios.. 1187 & 1337.
- You can also play vassals and any count thats around.
-Johan