[Mod Project] Crusader Kings 2013

[neondt]

So we're going to take modern Europe and throw it back to the Middle Ages.

THIS MOD IS IN A VERY EARLY STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT. IT IS IN NO WAY FINISHED.
The current version however seems to be playable, though very much lacking in features. I'd recommend Serbia or Bosnia if you want to try things out.

I'd also like to point out that this is definitely not an attempt to accurately recreate modern politics. This is rather a mod that will allow you to play modern countries and characters with CK2 mechanics, but with lots of modern flavour and unique content to make the experience interesting.

Dev Diary 1: Yugo-Nostalgia
Dev Diary 2: Estonia can into Scandinavia
Dev Diary 3: You don't have to be a Habsburg, but it helps
Dev Diary 4: Germany and Stuff
Dev Diary 5: Italy and Belgium
Dev Diary 6: Vive la France!

Any and all contributions/help/suggestions are very much welcome!

Download current progress HERE
This gets updated fairly regularly.
Last update: 26/7

Credits:
Deryk and Nathan - various characters and titles
Nintz - Spain and Portugal initial province allocation
morhange - Northern European characters, dynasties, and title histories
ndrgmm - Modern Italian culture
CountDidact - German localisation

 

[Ols]

Some suggestions:

1) Reshape the map. While it may not be easy to do, having a map that fits modern country borders correctly would be awesome. I assume all duchies, kingdoms and empires will change in some way, so it'd work fine.
2) Make elective less likely to favour same dynasty rulers and more likely to hate people who mess up. You could also make elections on a 5 year basis, so if you lose the election you get demoted back to your old title but keep living. Then the title could be Tanistry so the most favoured dynast takes charge for the remainder of term if their predecessor dies in office. A event to run an election could be based on province modifiers, so you need to do something a county asks you for to retain power.
3) The EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Arab Union should feature as Empires. None should be created, but should have their own events to simulate inter state interaction. If someone joins one, they should be added de jure to it. If they leave, they should get removed de jure from it.
4) In Monarchies, the political parties should still fight each other inside the realm. In a dictatorship like Belarus, the opposition should be landed somewhere with a claim and should create a democracy if they win with the normal mechanics.
5) Appropriate religions and cultures should be added, but not one for everyone. Belgium should be split between Dutch and French, Luxembourg should be German, Macedonia should be Bulgarian, Montenegro should be Serbian, ect. This avoids tediously writing out name lists. Anglicanism and Lutheranism should be added as denominations of Protestantism, and there should be no holy war enabled. Other religions could include Judaism for Israel, Atheism which should spread across Europe, and Mormonism for an Aztec Empire transformed into a Mormon Empire which invades across the Atlantic with Mitt Romney as its leader (because that's the most hilarious use of the Aztecs).

 

[benice1234]

The EU and so should be landless titles like the Pope or Muslim Brotherhood. I think.

 

[Ols]

The EU and so should be landless titles like the Pope or Muslim Brotherhood. I think.

That also sounds like a fair idea. It could become landed if the EU forms de facto though, the ruler could become an elected EU President. It's entirely possible that somewhere like Brussels could be usurped from Belgium or its current owner to land the ruler.

The WIP mod you uploaded doesn't seem to load up for me. I'll have a look at the files directly though.

 

[Darkgamma]

... and Mormonism for an Aztec Empire transformed into a Mormon Empire which invades across the Atlantic with Mitt Romney as its leader (because that's the most hilarious use of the Aztecs).

It was all meh up until there, where it went from meh to fucking gonna play it

 

[barpelz]

I have virtually no experience in serious modding, but I'm very interested in helping as much as I can. I think I can be more helpful in research and fleshing out family trees and all that, especially in Spain and Israel, about which I know the most. I'm a huge history geek (ain't we all?) and I've played quite a lot of CK2. Tell me anything I can help in!

About the suggestions, I say:

1.(if possible) to have the EU be a titular title which grants it's holder powers (maybe base it on the pope?), that holder being one of the European countries leaders. Eventually, it can gain de jure territory (potentially taking it away from other formable empires like the Soviet Union, the CIS or whatever other empire-tier realms are in), becoming landed and making its holder the one ruler of Europe! If any of you have ever played "The Winter King", something like their event for creating the Unified Empire of the Britons could be nice.

2. Make culture much more important ("foreigner" modifier for instance) and religion much less important

 

[Ols]

I have virtually no experience in serious modding, but I'm very interested in helping as much as I can. I think I can be more helpful in research and fleshing out family trees and all that, especially in Spain and Israel, about which I know the most. I'm a huge history geek (ain't we all?) and I've played quite a lot of CK2. Tell me anything I can help in!

About the suggestions, I say:

1.(if possible) to have the EU be a titular title which grants it's holder powers (maybe base it on the pope?), that holder being one of the European countries leaders. Eventually, it can gain de jure territory (potentially taking it away from other formable empires like the Soviet Union, the CIS or whatever other empire-tier realms are in), becoming landed and making its holder the one ruler of Europe! If any of you have ever played "The Winter King", something like their event for creating the Unified Empire of the Britons could be nice.

2. Make culture much more important ("foreigner" modifier for instance) and religion much less important

I was going to use Winter King code to make the EU happen, tbh. I got involved with that mod partially so I could understand how to make titles shift dramatically and according to events. What's the Unified Empire of the Britons? You mean Britain and Ireland? I'd just call that the UK. Religion should play a part though, Muslim nations should operate differently and have a small but noticeable malus with Christians and Jews. The CIS should be present, and it should become the Soviet Union if it forms with a member of House Communist in power.

Can't base the EU on the Pope, he's a religious leader. The leader would have to be relevant by events for anyone with the "member of EU" flag, and just be an unlanded titular title.

Family trees might be difficult. If, for example, Nicholas Sarkozy of France is of House Socialist, how would his surname show? It could be that everyone would need to have a two part given name to accommodate it. In that case the name list would be utterly exhaustive.

Unions like Yugoslavia should only form if its constituent parts opt to leave or not join the EU, as the two should be mutually exclusive. Older unions like Poland-Lithuania or Austria-Hungary shouldn't get as much attention. Since in order to remove a title by event from its de jure liege you need to give it a de jure liege, each country should get one. Britain should be moved to a British Empire, Spain/Portugal to Iberia, Germany and Austria to Grossdeutschland, Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg to Benelux, Romania/Moldova to Greater Romania, ect. These titles don't need to be createable, they just need to be there for event purposes. Other ones could be created for other reasons, so Austria-Hungary could be reformed as the Danubian Confederation and rename to Austria-Hungary if certain conditions are met, or the Ottoman Empire could reform if Turkey becomes a Monarchy and conquers stuff. Places like Kosovo should be independent with events and wars to decide who gets it de jure.

 

[JonStryker]

If Mitt Romney is inn I'll play it without a doubt


It would be a nice idea to design the county borders in a way that border changes of the 20th century could be reflected (WWII aftermath, Warsaw pact breakup, WWI aftermath).

Examples:
- There could be an Empire of Czechoslovakia with two de jure kingdoms Bohemia/Czechia and Slovakia + the de jure duchy of Zarkappia drifting into Ukraine.
- Alternatively: De Jure Empire of Austria-Hungary; Everything is currently drifting out by 2018 (I want to press Austria's de jure claim on South Tyrol xD).

Recreating all kinds of historic constructs would be pretty could.

 

[neondt]

Some suggestions:

1) Reshape the map. While it may not be easy to do, having a map that fits modern country borders correctly would be awesome. I assume all duchies, kingdoms and empires will change in some way, so it'd work fine.

Some reshaping will definitely have to occur, yeah. The de jure setup will be entirely different.

2) Make elective less likely to favour same dynasty rulers and more likely to hate people who mess up. You could also make elections on a 5 year basis, so if you lose the election you get demoted back to your old title but keep living. Then the title could be Tanistry so the most favoured dynast takes charge for the remainder of term if their predecessor dies in office. A event to run an election could be based on province modifiers, so you need to do something a county asks you for to retain power.

Interesting. I'd like to keep things simple for now though, it's early days yet xD

3) The EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Arab Union should feature as Empires. None should be created, but should have their own events to simulate inter state interaction. If someone joins one, they should be added de jure to it. If they leave, they should get removed de jure from it.

Good idea. I'm sure there's a lot that could be done with the EU.

4) In Monarchies, the political parties should still fight each other inside the realm. In a dictatorship like Belarus, the opposition should be landed somewhere with a claim and should create a democracy if they win with the normal mechanics.

I'm undecided on whether political parties will exist in countries that are actual monarchies. It may depend on the size of the country and how much nobility it has - there's enough noble titles in England still around that it should be possible to fill the kingdom with real aristocrats. Not sure about Spain though.

5) Appropriate religions and cultures should be added, but not one for everyone. Belgium should be split between Dutch and French, Luxembourg should be German, Macedonia should be Bulgarian, Montenegro should be Serbian, ect. This avoids tediously writing out name lists. Anglicanism and Lutheranism should be added as denominations of Protestantism, and there should be no holy war enabled. Other religions could include Judaism for Israel, Atheism which should spread across Europe, and Mormonism for an Aztec Empire transformed into a Mormon Empire which invades across the Atlantic with Mitt Romney as its leader (because that's the most hilarious use of the Aztecs).

Keeping religion and culture relatively simple seems sensible indeed. I'm thinking that Protestantism could be a single religion with autocephalous Archbishops. Adding "Secularism" or "Irreligion" as a religion is definitely on the to-do list ("Atheism" is probably too specific a term).

Also, there WILL be an American/Mormon Invasion optional module

edit: Anyone feeling up to writing characters for the House of Al Saud? 13 wives and 35 children indeed...

 

[Ols]

In my first point, I meant a physical reshape. The de jure reshape is a given, but actually tweaking the physical map to change province boundaries and the location of provinces are needed to show places like Moldova or any south slavic state accurately. I want to try map mods, so I might have a go myself. There'd be no need to go all out changing stuff, but some places do need to get reduced in size, shifted slightly or broken up.

I have little experience writing out history and making new characters. I can try my hand at that too, but I may have difficulty.

 

[neondt]

In my first point, I meant a physical reshape. The de jure reshape is a given, but actually tweaking the physical map to change province boundaries and the location of provinces are needed to show places like Moldova or any south slavic state accurately. I want to try map mods, so I might have a go myself. There'd be no need to go all out changing stuff, but some places do need to get reduced in size, shifted slightly or broken up.

I have little experience writing out history and making new characters. I can try my hand at that too, but I may have difficulty.

Yes, I meant both the de jure map and the province shapes both need major tweaking . I'm pretty bad at map modding though.

Writing characters and title histories is very easy. I taught my 17 year old brother how to do it a few hours ago and he made made Oman, Estonia, Ethiopia (currently localised as Gondar but whatever) and Saudi Arabia for the current WIP.

 

[Ols]

Yes, I meant both the de jure map and the province shapes both need major tweaking . I'm pretty bad at map modding though.

Writing characters and title histories is very easy. I taught my 17 year old brother how to do it a few hours ago and he made made Oman, Estonia, Ethiopia (currently localised as Gondar but whatever) and Saudi Arabia for the current WIP.

Well, I think I should try teaching myself map modding sooner or later. I just started tweaking and it looks kinda interesting to do. It's not like we're going to need to make new mountains or anything. I appreciate that history is probably easy when I start at it, but having the province shapes tweaked would be kick ass.

 

[Red_Machine]

Definitely want to help out with this. I can assist with the British side of things and give ideas on how the EU should be structured and how de jure claims could be handled. I want to take Greece and reform the Byzantine Empire.

 

[Deathshead419]

A thought on how to distribute land to political parties: Perhaps territories should be divided by voter allegiance. Here in the states, most areas are strongly for one party or the other. Toss up areas could be given to one (possibly using them for balance) with the other having a strong claim on the region. Would that work, or do things work differently on the other side of the world?

Edit: Also, could you at least have the option of keeping the map the same as vanilla? Part of the fun for me would be seeing the modern nations projected onto the medieval map.

 

[Ols]

A thought on how to distribute land to political parties: Perhaps territories should be divided by voter allegiance. Here in the states, most areas are strongly for one party or the other. Toss up areas could be given to one (possibly using them for balance) with the other having a strong claim on the region. Would that work, or do things work differently on the other side of the world?

Our voting constituencies are too small for that. Since most countries in Europe are not federal, we can't just go for States voting as a bloc. Political parties could be given subjectively chosen regions, but there are few places where any party can command strong support across a contiguous area. City/Countryside is the usual split, with regionalist parties commanding support in their regions, third parties being quite scattered and extremist parties rarely gaining enough support in any one place to make a difference.

 

[Deathshead419]

Our voting constituencies are too small for that. Since most countries in Europe are not federal, we can't just go for States voting as a bloc. Political parties could be given subjectively chosen regions, but there are few places where any party can command strong support across a contiguous area. City/Countryside is the usual split, with regionalist parties commanding support in their regions, third parties being quite scattered and extremist parties rarely gaining enough support in any one place to make a difference.

Ah, sorry about being an ignorant American for a second there.

On a less serious note, are you going modify troop types and/or sprites? Or just leave them so the armies are comprised of medieval infantry and cavalry?

[Edit] Also, how is Israel not going to be wiped out by Holy Wars Axum Style?

 

[Ols]

Ah, sorry about being an ignorant American for a second there.

On a less serious note, are you going modify troop types and/or sprites? Or just leave them so the armies are comprised of medieval infantry and cavalry?

[Edit] Also, how is Israel not going to be wiped out by Holy Wars Axum Style?

Disable holy wars. I don't know how to change sprites, I'm not sure if we need a special permission to change gfx like that. To represent Israel in its difficult position there'd probably have to be events and buffs to give Israel the strength to survive but the ability to lose. Palestine should be de jure Israel I guess, but Israel could be allowed to renounce it and let it be independent in exchange for other benefits.

 

[Nintz]

I can help out. I very "meh" on modding, but I can write events and decisions probably, though localization and the interface is not something I know how to do.

 

[BrunoDerKaiser]

Good luck! If this lifts off it will be awesome.

 

[neondt]

Nice to see this is getting interest

If people want to help, one simple yet very useful thing they could do would be to write character entries for heads of state and their families (particularly for monarchies), like so:

19 = {
	name="Elizabeth" # the Queen
	dynasty=19 #windsor
	religion="protestant"
	culture="english"
	female = yes
	1926.4.21 = {
		birth = 1926.4.21
	}
        1947.11.20 = {
                add_spouse = 1901
        }
	add_trait = kind
	add_trait = humble
	add_trait = charismatic_negotiator
	add_trait = diligent
	add_trait = content
}

1901 = {
	name="Charles" # prince of wales
	dynasty=19 #windsor
	religion="protestant"
	culture="english"
        mother=19
        father=1902
	1948.11.14 = {
		birth = 1948.4.21
	}
	add_trait = patient
}

1902 = {
	name="Philip" # duke of edinburgh
	dynasty=4 # that really long one
	religion="protestant"
	culture="english"
	1921.6.10 = {
		birth = 1921.6.10
	}
	add_trait = honest
}

Edit:
About Britain: "Empress" Elizabeth of Britain with king-tier Welsh (Charles) and Scottish (Alex Salmond) vassals?