Did anyone else really not like CK2 at first?

[Azhcristokos]

I first picked up CK2 a few months after release because I loved EU III and some people I trusted swore on their dead spouses' graves that I'd love it...and I didn't. $40 was a big expense back then so I was really disappointed and uninstalled it after like 3 hours, dismissing it as a waste of money.

Somehow I ended up reading something on the CK2 Wiki a long while later talking about pagan reformation, enabled by the Old Gods, and the Mend the Schism/Roman Empire decisions from Legacy of Rome. I decided to get those DLCs and give CK2 one last try...and was immediately hooked. Pretty much didn't get into any other games besides Skyrim (again) for the next year or so and I could barely contain my excitement at the release of Sons of Abraham (great expansion) and Rajas of India (disappointment).

Eventually, my roommates nervously knocked on my door to see if I was still alive, but I did not hear their pitiful concerns, for I was too busy founding a Monothelite Roman Empire with a string of emperors and empresses known for murder and relentlessly sleeping with anyone and everyone they could in the name of imperial unity and such.
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So yeah, I was super surprised that CK2 became my favorite game of all time. How about you guys?

Side note: One of my best friends is currently experiencing the same thing. I convinced him to buy CK2 but he wasn't into it. So I bought him Old Gods and Legacy of Rome. Suddenly I woke up to multiple texts every day asking for game advice and recounting his various exploits. I see him playing it on Steam whenever I log on...really not looking forward to his (amazing, beautiful, wonderfully delightful) wife's hateful-yet-loving glare next time I go over there. Oops.

 

[mrinku]

I was immediately hooked. But that did not surprise me - my favorite part of Medieval: Total War had been the character aspects, and CK2 just took that to Sims levels of detail. (I'm also a Sims addict, so hey...)

CK2 - the (legitimized) bastard love child of M2TW and Sims 3!

 

[Poliut]

There was an adjustment period between EU4 and CK2 but I don't think I entered "dislike" territory, though.

 

[IanReSc]

I was immediately hooked. But that did not surprise me - my favorite part of Medieval: Total War had been the character aspects, and CK2 just took that to Sims levels of detail. (I'm also a Sims addict, so hey...)

CK2 - the (legitimized) bastard love child of M2TW and Sims 3!

That. Loved the family trees in M2TW and was more about breeding than conquering. I too love Sims and CK2 just lets me do that. It is more of a role playing sandbox game than a grand strategy game. Yes, you can paint the map and probably will as the AI is easy to manipulate, but the fact that you can shape the fate of a dynasty over 600-700 years is awesome.

 

[mrinku]

I started with quite a few DLC, I should probably mention. I got it on a "Gold Edition" CD on special, which I think had everything up to Charlemagne except most of the cosmetics (though it did have the heraldic shields one). I know it was 2015 (Horselords had just come in, or was about to) and the first separate DLC I paid for was Way of Life, fairly soon after starting play.

 

[MentziaIII]

That. Loved the family trees in M2TW and was more about breeding than conquering. I too love Sims and CK2 just lets me do that. It is more of a role playing sandbox game than a grand strategy game. Yes, you can paint the map and probably will as the AI is easy to manipulate, but the fact that you can shape the fate of a dynasty over 600-700 years is awesome.

Same here.

So I loved the game right from the start , never really disliked it.

However ........ for two weeks , maybe for a full month , no idea what I'm doing.

It was extremely frustrating knowing I loved the game , but not really being able to use it / play it.

Once you DO know what you are doing it isn't rocket science.

But , initially , it is so complex and multi -faceted that the interface is hardly intuitive.

The tutorial is good enough to at least get you into the game ..... sort of . But the tutorial hardly tells you what terms like agnatic - cognatic or autocephaly mean , or why those terms can be vitally important. Or why three counties in your Kingdom are under a different set of realm laws you have no say in. And you run into things like that very soon.

It's basically a game you have to go to school to learn ! I suspect a lot of people never get into the game on that account. And why would you go to the trouble , unless you ALREADY loved it ?

It's not the only game I know of where you spend an inordinate amount of time in Wiki's and forums , because the amount of content is so large.

But it's the only game I have so far encountered where you spend so much time in Wiki's and forums just learning how to play it.

 

[TurboTT]

Bought the game when it first came out, and didnt like it. Played mostly eu4 dfuring that period. After some years I tried it again and got hooked for realz. I find it the most enjoyible game from paradox.

 

[shandou]

Same here.

I was a huge fan of EU1 so I gave ck2 a shot. Didnt like it, deleted it. A few weeks later I gave it another go suffered through the “tutorial” which didnt help much. So I decided to figure things out on my own. Started off as the count of Dal in 1066. That was excruciatingly boring as I didnt really know what to do but at least learned how marriages worked. Then I got game overed when a neighboring duke had a CB on my county.
I tried a different approach. Start as the Byzantine emperor and shamelessly use console commands (mainly for money and granting the immortal trait) so I had an infinite safety net and was free to experiment. Learned vassal, title amd army management. Learned how to do ubermensch breeding. That cheat run was very helpful to learn the major mechanics

It took ~300 hours of gameplay to learn that you dont need a strong genius ruler with massive demesne to succeed, as competent realm and vassal management goes way farther. Thats when I started LOVING the game

 

[mrinku]

But it's the only game I have so far encountered where you spend so much time in Wiki's and forums just learning how to play it.

I'd add EVE Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea as games I've had to research how to play above "just bumbling through".

This is pretty much the only game I've ever delved into the actual *code* in order to learn stuff, though, and that's a special thing

 

[hunter02]

But it's the only game I have so far encountered where you spend so much time in Wiki's and forums just learning how to play it.

I'd add EVE Online

 

[Rags17]

Many (many !) years ago I wrote a little program for my C64 called Births Deaths and Marriages that created little pseudo medieval families that grew, married and died every time the user hit the space bar. About five years ago I rewrote this program using VB in Excel, only this time I had around 15 years experience in life insurance and financial services so decided to sue real life birth, death and marriage rates. I actually found that using WHO health data for Somalia as a guide to be almost spot on - this data gave very realistic simulations of medieval birth and death rates.

About a month after finishing my project I found CK2. I had seen it before but it looked too "arcadey" for me, the Steam videos had little guys hitting each while looming over Spain or the Middle East so I had no idea what to expect. I downloaded the free version and was immediately gobsmacked !

Naturally I started to play with the game files, when I discovered that just about every single game file was editable in a simple text editor I almost wet myself. I snapped up the whole lot via a Steam bundle that was on special but made myself wait 6 weeks until Christmas before I let myself play. I was NOT disappointed and pretty much played CK2 to the exclusion of all else for the next four years. last year I had a few life changes so dialed it back, my last big campaigns were just after Holy Fury came out. A few months back I also got a 4 month chat ban for posting a misinterpreted emoji so I drew back even further. Ban now over I am back and getting into my true love once again.


TL;DR - I've loved this game since I first discovered it and it is still my favorite game of all time, bar nothing, and that goes for board games, computer games or any other sort of games.

 

[BlackBarook]

I bought the game when it came out hoping to play as a Muslim character. Found out that it was impossible so I uninstalled the game and ignored it until the appropriate DLC came out.

 

[Patriarch of Bub]

At first i hated it. I put it down for a good 2 years after my CD purchase. Must have bought right after Charlemagne dlc if i remember correctly.

I was a most avid CK Deus Vult fan, using my powerful immagination to fill in the blanks left by the game. When i first tried CK2 i thought only a pleb could possibly prefer this game to the molten gold of Deus Vult.

Eventually i understood better how the game worked and loved it. Though i put off playing certain areas until i coukd get the portraits packs.

 

[r3xm0rt1s]

I tested the demo. Picked the Polish king, married a HRE princess, had a son, my spymaster told me my brother is trying to murder my baby, "Yeah that would have been nice to know a week ago..."

I did not wait for a sale, no regrets then or now.

 

[sreckom92]

I picked up the game at release. After the first playthrough, I was bored with it.
Didn't play the game until Legacy of Rome dlc came out. Had some fun with it, but only for a short while.
Only after The Old Gods dlc did I start actively playing it and following game development.

 

[Castimirr]

I'd add EVE Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea as games I've had to research how to play above "just bumbling through".

This is pretty much the only game I've ever delved into the actual *code* in order to learn stuff, though, and that's a special thing

Yeah, Eve was the first thing that came to mind when I read that too. At least I'm consistent in my games being like that.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

It's the opposite for me. I dived right into CK2 fascinated.

EU4 however I never got into. It's too much like a board game and I feel terrible knowing I don't know the most optimal moves and when to do them. I suppose I can dive into it like CK2 but the very fact that it's more board game-y (competitive) just doesn't allow me to immerse myself as well.

 

[fall back]

I was immediately hooked.

CK2 - the (legitimized) bastard love child of M2TW and Sims 3!

I couldn’t have said it better I got in to ck2 late 2014-early 2015 after playing eu4

 

[Seclouds]

I played eveol from 2010 to 2014 and got two 80M SP character and one 30M SP character, it's the most funny game to distinguish skilled and unskilled player. Like 'how to lose the Titan in 15 minutes', 'how to get 12B isk in 3 minutes'.

And you can added the shxt dcs world into that pic, most ppl will give up the game at 'how to start dat fckin fuel pump and cold shxt engine'. LOL

However in the eveol you can misclick the 'Out of Station' button to swim in the space, but you can't take off the plane by skipping the boot camp of dcs world. LOL

 

[geckoman1011]

I had a very similar progression. I got CK II free because I owned EU III (I LOVED EU III, HATE EU IV). Anyway, I tried playing CK II but didnt really understand the holding, vassal, or war/siege system. I put it down for a couple years before coming back to it. When I came back it seemed to come alive for me and have played it almost exclusively, with only short breaks for HOI IV and Cities: Skylines. (on a side note, CK II is why I always place cemeteries or crematoriums next to schools in C:S)