Thinking of getting this as a christmas present to myself. Loads of questions though!

[unmerged(492002)]

1.When does probation expire? (You may not think this relates to the game, but I want to be able to got to the mod subforum, something you can't do if your OP.)

2.What's the diffrence between expansions and DLC?

3.Can you pick and choose with the expansions and DLC, or do you need to buy all the ones prior to the ones you want?

4.If you don't have to buy the ones prior, which ones are pivotal for Gameplay?

5.Are there any good mods, non fantasy, that improve the gameplay?

 

[vmarra]

1. I don't recall it be long at all.

2. An all expansions are DLC not all DCL is expansions. Besides for expansions your DLC would be unit packs (different skins), and song packs (different songs), and the ruler designer (create your own ruler).

3/4. Yes though there is some pivotal stuff. I would definitely down load SOI (Sword of Islam), this will allow you to play as Muslims and will make sure you don't get a "game over" screen if you get forced to convert to Islam (it can happen). Also I would say the ruler designer is awesome and I use it all the time. The new Legacy of Rome is ok, though I would say less Pivotal than SOI unless you really like the Roman Empire.

5. CK2+ or the Prince and Thane mods seem to be the favorites, though on a Fantasy kick the Game of Thrones Mod is VERY well done.

 

[unmerged(492002)]

1. I don't recall it be long at all.

It's been about a month now.

 

[unmerged(492002)]

1. I don't recall it be long at all.

2. An all expansions are DLC not all DCL is expansions. Besides for expansions your DLC would be unit packs (different skins), and song packs (different songs), and the ruler designer (create your own ruler).

3/4. Yes though there is some pivotal stuff. I would definitely down load SOI (Sword of Islam), this will allow you to play as Muslims and will make sure you don't get a "game over" screen if you get forced to convert to Islam (it can happen). Also I would say the ruler designer is awesome and I use it all the time. The new Legacy of Rome is ok, though I would say less Pivotal than SOI unless you really like the Roman Empire.

5. CK2+ or the Prince and Thane mods seem to be the favorites, though on a Fantasy kick the Game of Thrones Mod is VERY well done.

Are the DLC free? If not, do they do anything other than cosmetics?

What are the expansions? SoI and LoR? The rest are unit packs and the like?

 

[grumphie]

1. ?
2. DLC are optional, expansions require the previous one to work. there are no expansions for CK2, only DLC

3. you can pick and choose. if you want Legacy of rome, there is no need to get mongol faces or sword of islam.

4. while i persoanlly find them all very welll worth it, there are really only 2/3 that are sor tof "required.
1. legacy of rome, which besides adding a lot of flavour for the byzantine empire adds retinue's, which ar eliek standing armies and really not soemthing you wanna miss out on imo. i use them allt he time as a large nation.
2. ruler designer, really eeasy to mod away the aging with stats and greatly simplfies creatign a personal dynasty
3. sword of islam, while not unlocking any features on its own, does unlock muslims to be playable, and you cant convert ect. to muslim as well unless you ahve this one.
rest are flavour DLC with some epic music(especially the byzantine one) which are all great, some faces and some coat of arms(which look quite cool as welll when playing such a dynasty)

5. ck2+, prjoect balance, the prince and the thane. its also very balanced and nice to play even without mods.

EDIT: you can go to the mod forum once you own the game and registered it. i got no idea what probation is, but you should be able to chunck out a nice amount of gameplay evenw ithotu mods. DLC all cost money, where the cosmetical costs very little(i recall like €0.99 for some sings) with mainly SoI and LoR a tad more expensive(€10 and €6 respective), which is still almost like robbing PI considering the massive amounts of free content we get in the patches coming with major DLC.

 

[OrdepNM]

Are the DLC free? If not, do they do anything other than cosmetics?

What are the expansions? SoI and LoR? The rest are unit packs and the like?

No dlc is free. Song, face and sprite packs are cosmetic yes, while ruler design is a mixed bag. Sure you can change the way your charscter looks, but you can also change his culture and whatnot, which affects gameplay. Sunset invasion will be the fist fully gameplay-oriented dlc.

And you are very correct on the second part of your post.

 

[Ordo Impavidus]

1.When does probation expire? (You may not think this relates to the game, but I want to be able to got to the mod subforum, something you can't do if your OP.)

I was on probation. Once. It was no big deal for me really.

No need to worry about it so long as you abide by the forum rules.

2.What's the diffrence between expansions and DLC?

Usually DLC not free unless they're given away as free by the sheer generosity of developer. SOTSII comes to mind.

DLC is wholly cosmetic whereas expansions relate to added code for improved and expanding game content and mechanics.

3.Can you pick and choose with the expansions and DLC, or do you need to buy all the ones prior to the ones you want?

Either is optional I suppose. Pick and choose or elect to buy none. The core game remains unaffected if you go with DLC.

4.If you don't have to buy the ones prior, which ones are pivotal for Gameplay?

None pivotal. But if you want to "expand" the game play, you might want to get the expansions.

5.Are there any good mods, non fantasy, that improve the gameplay?

I'm not familiar with mods.

 

[Culinia]

Don't worry about the DLC and the like. To be honest you can probably get a 'Crusader Kings II Complete' pack soon after Christmas (Steam Winter/Steam Holiday sales...other vendors usually follow).

I personally on the summer sale purchased everything before the SoI updates for £9.49 and then purchased the SoI, African Units Pack, Songs of the Caliph, Swords of Islam for £2.77 at a later date (when it went on sale again).

Point being, if you get your timings right, you can have everything for a good price.

I'd also like to say thanks to paradox/steam for allowing these sales opportunities to take place since it allows me (and others obviously) to enjoy your games at the fullest at a good price.

As for non-fantasy mods, I use CK2+ which I enjoy. I also tried Prince and Thane but unfortunately too buggy for me. However, this won't stop me trying after a few more iterations of the mods.

 

[Gunnarr]

I dunno... I've seen some polish guy on probation for at least 5 months so far and still is, it might never go away!

 

[Wezqu]

Are you trying to ask when you can see the mod sub-forum on your first question? If you are then the answer is that you will only see it after you register Crusader Kings II on these forums. You can't see Bug Report, Tech Support or User Modification sub-forums until the game is registered.