Downloading the demo and have some questions

[unmerged(150808)]

Hey guys I am downloading the demo from Steam and just have a couple of questions. I am new to grand strategy as I normally play 4X strategy and RTS games. But from reading and looking at some you tube videos about the game is it true that in the game you don't explore and really don't war? If so can anyone tell me what this game entails as I am waiting for download to conclude and why you guys find this game so addictive. Because I am presently looking for a game to sink my teeth in and get addicted to. I love strategy games but like I said earlier never played any type of grand strat. PLease fill me in. Thanks all...
P.S. Excited and hope this game is what I been after

 

[Sleight of Hand]

War is an important concept of the game, but it is neither necessary nor particularly rewarding.

Exploration is a non-issue -- there is no fog of war and the map is fully explored at all times, though you will only be able to see what's happening in your realm, and those of your allies whilst you're in a war together.

 

[6ix]

I find the game addictive because of the intrigue. Masterminding grand schemes is particularly fun. Being a tyrant is also fun.

 

[justin6477]

Well, this isn't grand strategy. At least not according to Johan. It's more Strategic RolePlaying than anything else.

The game is surprisingly versatile to play; mostly because one's concerns alter depending on their stature. If I'm a King with loads of Dukes under me, realm management can become insane. If I'm an Emperor with several large Kings under my thumb, one of them revolting can also be a pain. As a Duke or Count, you must content with your King or Duke being happy with you. And it goes on and on.

The other nice thing is that as the game develops with its DLCs/Patches, the different gov't types start to play more and more differently. This of course in turn effects the way that you play. Everyone has their strengths, and everyone has their challenges. The whole thing is quite dynamic, and it'll continue to be more dynamic as features and detail get added in.

 

[Lorehead]

You can play the game like a 4X if you want to, but it’s really much more of a sandbox with 4X elements, where you pick your own goals. I really enjoy it, but see how you like the demo.

 

[unmerged(150808)]

Is the learning curve steep? I am trying to play the tutorial but when it comes time to give the boat with troops in it an order to travel north it doesn't move lol. Even when I unpause. So what is the best way to learn this game. It seems something that I would be very interested in, and I can see myself playing this game but don't want to get discouraged because I am overwhelmed with not knowing what to do

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Is the learning curve steep? I am trying to play the tutorial but when it comes time to give the boat with troops in it an order to travel north it doesn't move lol. Even when I unpause. So what is the best way to learn this game. It seems something that I would be very interested in, and I can see myself playing this game but don't want to get discouraged because I am overwhelmed with not knowing what to do

To be honest, so much has changed since the game was released that the tutorials may not even work anymore. I'm not sure if they have ever been tweaked alongside newer patches and DLCs.

 

[justin6477]

Is the learning curve steep? I am trying to play the tutorial but when it comes time to give the boat with troops in it an order to travel north it doesn't move lol. Even when I unpause. So what is the best way to learn this game. It seems something that I would be very interested in, and I can see myself playing this game but don't want to get discouraged because I am overwhelmed with not knowing what to do

Never tried the tutorials. CK2 is pretty much the most user friendly game I've played by Paradox. If you can play HoI3, you can play CK2. A large part of the learning curve is just getting your head around the fact that you're playing the family, not the title.

 

[Lorehead]

I’m probably the wrong person to ask, since I’d been playing CK and other Paradox games for years, but I didn’t think so. The interface for dealing with fleets could be improved, but you’ll figure it out. The basic problem is that the game will assume you meant to select the troops and not the ships. What you want to do is: combine, load, then move. Or, in more detail: lasso only the ships and not the troops, hit the double-arrow button to group them into a single fleet, select the troops, group them into a single army, load them onto the boats, then right-click on your destination while you have the boats selected.

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Is the learning curve steep? I am trying to play the tutorial but when it comes time to give the boat with troops in it an order to travel north it doesn't move lol. Even when I unpause. So what is the best way to learn this game. It seems something that I would be very interested in, and I can see myself playing this game but don't want to get discouraged because I am overwhelmed with not knowing what to do

You can jump in any part of the tutorial as you like in case you got stuck. There is no unlocking in this game. I remember your issue with landing troops, but can't recall the solution. Just get back to tutorial start and choose the part you want.

The learning curve to play is relatively low, the curve to actually understand the mechanics is steep enough to visit the forum.


On armies: several armies problem ? Check one army/navy with "shift", lasso all others, move them .

 

[cywang86]

Is the learning curve steep? I am trying to play the tutorial but when it comes time to give the boat with troops in it an order to travel north it doesn't move lol. Even when I unpause. So what is the best way to learn this game. It seems something that I would be very interested in, and I can see myself playing this game but don't want to get discouraged because I am overwhelmed with not knowing what to do

Sometimes you only need to unpause the game and let it run a little. I think I've encountered that problem during the tutorial myself and had to restart the whole thing.

For CK2, the learning curve isn't steep at all. Pick the right country and you'll be increasing your domain left and right without knowing much about the game. I believe Ireland is a good place to learn your ropes. Not sure if 1.07 has changed it or not.

P.S. the levy system will get VERY tedious after a while, but it's there to portrait the army system of that time, so don't get turned away by it

 

[liamgamer55]

If you love to start small as a country/nation/character/whatever in a game and expand lots this game will be great for you. It's not a pure warfare game and you will have both internal and external threats, but as a purely military strategy game it has plenty of depth.

How many games have both internal and external threats that are set in medieval times that feel natural? I can think of one other... but I'll give you a hint it's CKV (ck2's predecessor) and it's pretty obscure and hard to guess. If you want to focus on powergaming than not only do you need to compare external threats (which political entitiy/country has the most strength... and maybe I should ally with this one etc) but you also have to deal with several other things. I think the best way to put it would be like this.

Fun things to do as a powergamer:
-Choose when to attack or not
-Make sure your defenses are strong enough so that when another realm is able to attack your realm you're able to defend yourself (in ck2 if they don't border you and don't have any claims on your titles medieval law may say that the enemy AI country cannot attack you without pissing off the pope so they won't)
-It is very similar to 4x games... you could make a 4x mod with this game engine fairly easily (it would take 100s of hours to make though obviously)
-Choose who to marry your daughters off to to gain alliances
-Do you want a smart wife or a lusty wife?... this decision may influence how many daughters you have
-As king, keep check on your counts & dukes.... assign them titles in a way that makes them fight each other instead of you
-Raise or lower the authority of the crown to totally change how your kingdom works... high authority doesn't allow infighting for instance. It makes you stronger militarily... but your dukes will hate you for it. How many other games give you options like that?
-Try not to piss of your sons because they might try and kill you early

This game isn't just for roleplayers, if you love to minmax stats there's heaps and heaps of them that you can either ignore or not ignore if you're a powergamer. You can micromanage everything to hell (e.g. look at every single woman when choosing a wife and what her stats and personality traits are and what family she's from) or not... (e.g. choose a random wife... or only look at her stewardship trait and choose the best one... or only choose the youngest wife). The best part is is you can start a new game and each time you can choose whether to roleplay or not, or anything in between. The amount of choices in ck2 are way bigger than "omg I get to be good or evil cos this is fable and the story is even 2% different near the end!"... when really that sortof choice is pointless.