If DLC #12 is China, what should DLCs 10 & 11 be?

[HREmperor]

y

And since the name is no longer accurate to the game, we don't need proper crusades is it?

You're right, having one of THE most defining event series of european-arab history be improperly modeled (to the point of total ahistoricalness) is ok since the game is just titled crusader kings cause legacy

The game is advertised as being about the Crusades and Feudal Europe...

 

[Pomeranian]

I think a religion-focused DLC is the main thing that I'd be interested in. I and a few other users have come up with some ideas here. There have also been a few good discussion threads in the main forum (such as this one) detailing some good ideas for improvements. I think Horse Lords has the opportunity to get the ball rolling by making Manichaeism into a distinct religion and also giving Steppe Buddhism and Nestorianism some unique flavour.

 

[Haccoude]

A "Legacy of Matilda" or "Lombard League" DLC bringing mechanics for Inland Republics, Rural Communes and how they can break away from realms with too little control over them, as well as for the military leagues they formed to safeguard their independence.

 

[Finnway]

Archbishops and the Pope.

I don't care if they are playable or not. But the Catholic church had way more power and importance than it does in game. The pope was basically like the UN or the EU today. He was the top decision maker and law maker. Archbishops also were historically some of the most powerful and influential people in kingdoms. They were king makers with power to grant legitimacy to a rulers claim. Maybe the archbishop hates your heir and on your death he crowns his brother instead causing civil war. Only kings and perhaps powerful Dukes should be able to get a direct line to the papa regime. It's always struck me as a bit odd that an obscure Irish count can just pick up the phone and speak to the pope directly. He would have spoken to the head of religion for his region. Who spoke for the pope.

The power of the church in this period was absolute. That's why there was a reformation. It's why we now have the term "separation of church and state". In the CK world they already had their liberal revolution sometime after the fall of Western Rome.

I have an idea of how they could implement this.

They added a new map mode called "Church Authority" that showed which regions of the world are governed by each Arch-Bishop. Arch-Bishops would be a title outside of the regular count > duke > king hierarchy. They would collect taxes from Bishops in their region and pay taxes to the Pope. Instead fo going to the Pope for favors, rulers would now go to the Arch-Bishop of the region where their capital is located.

Additionally, they could add new Papal Favors grantable by Arch-bishops. One example might be blessing a favorite heir if you have elective-monarchy. Blessing a favorite heir would make your vassals more likely to vote for him and grant him a tiny bit of monthly piety and prestige (more piety than prestige.) Additionally, they could add more ways to abuse the Church; such as siezing Church property to fund your wars (if I remember correctly, one of the early English kings siezed church property to fund his "Viking-protection" propgram.) They could also add some other feature to create general tension between rulers and the Arch-Bishops in their kingdoms.

Catholics already get so many bonuses in this game. I think it's fair for the Catholic Church to mess with them a little more.

I'm not sure if/how this system could translate to other relgions tho. Could pagans or Muslims make use of a "Church Authority" map mode?

 

[Sunspawn]

To add to Finnway's suggestion, similar to my meter-based crown authority suggestion, the authority and influence of an archbishop could be determined by the support - or lack thereof - of the nobles in his archdiocese, the wealth of the dioceses in his archdiocese, etc... With higher church influence, the archbishop gains more sway in the decisions of the rulers in his archdiocese, such as being able to intervene in faction wars in favor of one of the sides, forbid marriages due to consanguinity or with different religions (orthodox, miaphysite, etc.. maybe even make interfaith marriages possible in the free patch, making Trebizond's practice of marrying princesses to the local islamic powers for peace possible), pressure rulers to relinquish control over lands that were conquered in claim wars by request of another claimant and much more.

 

[jobasha]

Playable baronies!

I would go one step further and add playable courtiers (through events), in the context of an intrigue DLC, as others were proposing.

 

[Finnway]

I would go one step further and add playable courtiers (through events), in the context of an intrigue DLC, as others were proposing.

Giving control over courteirs via events would be pretty cool. It'd work similar to the way education does now. Maybe WoL 2?

 

[DesNibelungen]

it is also my opinion that this game would 100% be improved by time traveling nazis from south africa wanting to keep slavery a thing by giving... idk, henry the lion ak-47's.

Folks, I think we have a next DLC Winner.

 

[Kubissus_PL]

Secret Bears...

 

[Finnway]

Folks, I think we have a next DLC Winner.

I think he was being sarcastic...
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[HREmperor]

I think he was being sarcastic...
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I think he was being sarcastic too...
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[Finnway]

I think he was being sarcastic too...

So was I....

We just created a sarcasti-inception.

 

[Spartanlemur]

I disagree. If a DLC isn't going to be part of the core game, and possibly even expanded upon in future DLCs, then why make it?

For me personally, WoL was already a departure enough from everyday medieval life. If they're going to make another role-playing DLC I'd like it to be at least somewhat historical. Which is why I like @klopkr's idea of depicting myths and legends believed at the time, like the "Sword of Odin"or "White Stag" events you can get while hunting. The stigmata, voice of Jesus, and Jeanne d'Arc events are also good examples.

Now that I think about, that could be lumped in with a DLC that adds new religious mechanics for Jews and non-Abrahamic faiths.

They would make it for the same reason Rockstar made Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare; because then all of the existing content can be used in a radically new way. Rather than change the existing content, the perspective of it entirely changes.

The whole point would be that we would not use this DLC in a regular playthrough, but only in fantasy playthroughs. We all get bored of vanilla CK2 from time to time, so it's nice to have something relatively small radically change the game occasionally than to have a bite-sized edition which just adds a few events.

 

[Sahraine]

Archbishops would be super cool

The Pope could use a boost in power. I doubt the catholic world would just wait let me conquer him, game after game

 

[Finnway]

@Sunspawn I don't think you'd want to make the Catholic Church's new powers too powerful, or else playing in Europe would feel like a completely different game. Determining the winner of faction wars sounds a bit too drastic. But things like foridding a marriage due to a character being from a different religion or upgrading a weak claim you inherited to a strong claim would be good.

In general, the Church should have more power and the punishments for refusing the Church should be harsher. Losing a teeny bit of piety isn't that harsh of a punishment. But losing an opinion with all your vassals would. For example, for refusing to adopt Papal Invesititure you could lose 250 piety (that's -10 relation with all your Bishops) and -10 relation with all your other vassals for one year (the penalty could be nulified for Cynical vassals and increased to -20 for Zealous vassals.)

If they make a religion DLC maybe they could do a pass at all all events/decision that use piety and try to make it more meaningful of a stat, like it is for Muslims.

 

[Antiscamp]

I don't know. But some more focus on the common/cliché things that pop into people's heads when they think "Medieval" would do the game wonders. Castle building, siege warfare, tournaments, Robin Hood, knights in shining armour and ladies in distress. Some more focus on the Crusades vs Jihad would also be cool to see.

Maybe a Hundred Years' War DLC to top the game off.

 

[Steel_atlas]

DLC 10: Roads of Gold: North Africa/Trade

DLC 11: Kingdom of God Jerusalem/HRE/Holy Orders/Mercenaries/Great Holy Wars

 

[whosthebestcop]

I'm for stop all dlc's and start Ck3!

 

[Kubissus_PL]

And then buy all the DLCs again for CK3? I hope they will support CK2 for at least 2 years from now.

 

[Sunspawn]

@Sunspawn I don't think you'd want to make the Catholic Church's new powers too powerful, or else playing in Europe would feel like a completely different game. Determining the winner of faction wars sounds a bit too drastic. But things like foridding a marriage due to a character being from a different religion or upgrading a weak claim you inherited to a strong claim would be good.

In general, the Church should have more power and the punishments for refusing the Church should be harsher. Losing a teeny bit of piety isn't that harsh of a punishment. But losing an opinion with all your vassals would. For example, for refusing to adopt Papal Invesititure you could lose 250 piety (that's -10 relation with all your Bishops) and -10 relation with all your other vassals for one year (the penalty could be nulified for Cynical vassals and increased to -20 for Zealous vassals.)

If they make a religion DLC maybe they could do a pass at all all events/decision that use piety and try to make it more meaningful of a stat, like it is for Muslims.

I would in fact want to make the catholic church far more powerful than it is now. Going against the pope should either tear your realm apart, make your nobles replace you via faction or in the best case, screw your rule with constant strife and unrest.