More Strait and Rivers Crossings

[pengoyo]

While I don't think this is at all a pressing concern (so devs feel free to leave this on the back burner if needed), I do find the crossings in game to be sparse and many places that probably should have a crossing don't.

The first of these are the river crossings. I don't know to much about where their are natural ford points in river so these suggestions are based on how the CK3 map is laid out. Specifically I find it weird that there are counties you can't get from one side of the county to the other due to a major river. Outside of the weirdness of having a political entity that can't get from one part of its territory to another, this can create problem for moving troop as you can't always siege the castle required for not taking attrition. So I think a major crossing should be added to these counties or alternatively the baronies within the counties should be adjusted/changed.

The counties that meet this criteria are Murom, Magdeburg, Cleves, Mantua, Constanta, Novgorod Seversky, and Aswan.

There are also some duchies that are also similarly split, while not as bad, I think adding major crossings to fix them could also be good.

These duchies are Kasa (note there are three small major rivers around/in this duchy that don't have any crossings. I think they could all benefit from getting one crossing each), Dobrudja (fixing the county of Constanta would also solve this), Emilia (fixing the county of Mantua would also solve this), Jülich (fixing the county of Cleves would also solve this), and Holstein.

Lastly I noticed Cologne doesn't have a crossing despite being a important city during this period.



Now for the sea crossings. These I based off of the map looking for areas where there was a narrowing and it would either be impossible or significantly longer to go around (roughly more than x10). I limited myself to a distance of less than 25 in game units (the debug mode has x and y coordinates that I used to measure). As that seemed to give a good number of strait crossings, while still leaving some island completely separated from the mainland. Plus it works for all in game strait except for the Canary Islands (though some others do require island hoping to be less than 25). Like the game, I especially tried to have straits between islands that are part of the same county or duchy (the aforementioned island hoping). Besides giving some more flexibility in moving troops around, adding more strait crossings allows development to get one from one county to the other more easily (this is especially true for giving Venice a strait crossing to the mainlands so it's high development can improve northern Italy), quicker fabrication claim speeds for being adjacent, and allows the the realm name to be better displayed in many cases.

Spoiler: Example of an Improved Name

Before:

After:

So a good example of this is the Dover-Calais strait. First it would allow development from the continent to diffuse to England and vice versa. But more importantly, it would help to represent the strategic importance of this strait in conflicts between England and France. By making it a easier way to get across the channel, but one that can be cut off by an opposing army. But importantly, the strait doesn't mean that all invasions of England will use that strait, as the AI will favour naval invasions if using the strait would require too much walking (e.g. any invasion from Scandinavia). So while not all English-French conflicts will be fought over that strait, it does help to give the area a little more strategic importance.

Spoiler: All Straits

Note I'm using debug baony names which don't always match in game barony names.

Britain:
Calais-Dover & Carisbrooke-Southhampton

Ardnamurchon-Glencoe, Skye-Ardnamurchon, Islay-Kilmarten, & Cunningham-Lomond

Iberia:
Minorca-Mallorca

Note Ibiza is too far way so that's why it doesn't get a strait crossing. Also I think this helps differentiate the islands a bit as Ibiza is more isolated compared to the others.

Tarifa-Sabta

Germany:
Bruges-Middleburg, Bergen op Zoom-Middleburg, Edam-Amsterdam, & Staveren-Medemblik

Scandinavia:
Holstebro-Lindholm, Femera-Nakskov, Hafn-Trelleborg, & Kolding-Middelfart

Talje-Sigtuna & Stangir-Tunsberg

Strind-Eynafylki

Greece:
Zakynthos-Andravida & Hellas-Achaia

Euboia-Andros, Ephesos-Samos, Halikarnassos-Kos, Cridus-Rhodos, Atheniai-Andros, & Kos-Samos

Note I think the Strait crossing between the counties of Attica and Naxos I added would be even better if there was one or two empty baronies to represent the western Cyclades (potentially Milos and/or Kythnos). This way from Athens you island hop first to the western Cyclades and then to Naxos proper.

Oreoi-Gardikia, Lemonos-Kalliopolis, Lesbos-Adramytium, Skyros-Skopelos, & Abydos-Kaliopolis

Italy and the Balkans:
Mestre-Venezia, Cres-Labin, & Nin-Bag

Hvar-Solin

Russia:
Vastselina-Gdov

Note just like how the crossing in Vodi is technically over a sea, but is represented as a major river crossing. I think you can do the save for this crossing and other similarly small crossings.
Also I feel like the fact lake Peipsi is actually a sea in game is under utilized and might be better served by making the river to the north a major river (with a river crossing or two).

Pontic Steppe:
Kyzyl Jar-Dzhankoi, Yaseni-Soleny, & Sulina-Chilia

Sub-Saharan Africa:
Bijagos-Pepel & Bijagos-Guinala

Mesopotamia:
Hifair-Baljan

India:
Kasara-Kanthakota

Turan:
Kajdak-Tengiz

Kugaral-Dzangent

Note this picture are from a personal mod that I made for my own use (it only has the strait crossings as river crossing are harder to mod in). But if people want I can upload it to the workshop.

If you have any suggestion on which crossing don't make sense or any I missed, please let me know.

 

[klopkr]

I like and support all of these crossings except the english one and the venetian one. I think both rely too heavily on repulsing naval invasions for survival to have crossings without some kind of crossing blocking mechanic like EU4.

 

[pengoyo]

I like and support all of these crossings except the english one and the venetian one. I think both rely too heavily on repulsing naval invasions for survival to have crossings without some kind of crossing blocking mechanic like EU4.

Thanks for the response.

First, I did notice that when modding in the straits you need to specify which sea zone it is in. And as far as I can tell this is not a piece of information that is used by the game currently. So my personal theory is it is there so that they can easily add some kind of strait blocking mechanic latter when they add navies (probably as part of a merchant republic dlc). But either way, some sort of strait blocking mechanic is definitely something they can easily include in the future, and I'd be for that.


As for the game as it currently stands.

For Venice, the penalty for invading from the sea and the penalty for invading using a strait crossing are the same, so Venice is just as defensible as before (and if defensibility is really a problem, the devs can always modify the special building in Venice to give increased fort level or something). While there also would no longer be a cost to invading Venice, an invading army only needs to pay that once, and it's not very much. But for Venice, that means it doesn't need to pay if it wants to expand into northern Italy (plus the benefit that the development from Venice will diffuse into northern Italy). So the cost hurts Venice more than those that would want to invade it (as it will pay for it more often).

For England, I don't think the naval argument really applies. England was invaded multiple time from France through out the period (with a few of them being successful, William of Normandy and Isabel of France come to mind), so the use of the navy as a means of stopping a naval invasion was not something England really did during the middle ages, at least not very successfully (it wasn't until cannons were put on ships at the very end of the period that the ability for navies to protect a large area from invasion came practical). So I'd argue that England shouldn't get any special treatment (plus this also helps England with it's many invasions of France, so it cuts both ways). I should add, even going from France to England (or vice versa), the AI won't always use the strait crossing, so this new strait doesn't have a drastic change on the balance of power between England and France in game.

So I do think both are better served by a strait crossing and both should be compatible with any future strait blocking mechanic. But if the devs don't add them in as they don't agree with my reasoning, that's fine. I don't find either to be absolutely necessary. Though I will add that the Venice one is the one I'd more like to see in game.