[TOOL] Crusader Kings 2 Alternate History and Random Map Generator

[yemmlie101]

Introducing the 'Out of Africa' Crusader Kings 2 Alternate History Generator tool!

WARNING this is a very early alpha and is for testing purposes only, results may be mixed and there will likely be bugs and features missing or not balanced.

For updates on release you can follow: https://twitter.com/yemmlieCK2Gen

Basically the tool will generate, from scratch, a completely new history of humanity from its first exodus from Africa as a new mod to be playable in CK2 (and now optionally an entirely random map!). A random culture and pagan religion is formed (as in completely random, using all the parameters available for religions and cultures in CK2, as well as forming a unique language used to name characters, provinces, kingdoms, gods, religions. These cultures will then spread throughout europe, mutating and changing as they spread, words and language, religions, ethnicity, cultural ideals, laws, looting, river sailing, incest, religious heads, holy sites, wives, concubines and everything, all morphing, mutating and branching off as humans spread through time and land, and form a completely unique world with absolutely none of the vanilla cultures, religions, provinces, de-jure duchies or anything found in the base game.

Then it starts generating the history in much greater detail, a simpler simulation than CK2, nevertheless it processes births, deaths, marriages, inheritances, wars and conquests to create a full dynasty family trees, title histories, dejure kingdoms and empires, conquered lands, to create a starting point for the player to drop into and start creating their own histories in-game.

Absolutely everything about the history of the world except the map data itself is unique.

It also works on modded maps (though I can't guarantee it'll work on all modded maps)

In addition, the latest (unstable) beta build adds completely random map generation, so you can play on a completely randomized map with completely randomized cultures, kingdoms, religions and empires!

To use history generator:

1) Select the CK2 install directory in the Configuration tab
2) Set generation options in the Generation Option tab
3) Click Start in the Generate tab. It will start with pre-history where pre-society humans will spread throughout the land, and after all areas are colonized, it will begin generating the history of your world. At this point you can stop the generation at any time, or leave it to run to an alternate 1066 (the maximum date, though it'll report 1070 in the editor since it needs to generate a few years ahead).
4) Click export. It will export the history as a new mod in your CK2 mod folder.
5) If you want to play on an earlier date within the same history, you can input the same seed and regenerate, and stop generation at an earlier date (the seed is stored in the outputted mod's root directory). At this time multiple start date bookmarks are not possible.

As I said before, expect there may be bugs or issues and keep your autosaves regular just in case.

DOWNLOAD

Requires .NET 4.5 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30653

For 2.6.1.1 but should work on prior builds

http://ck2generator.com/versions/CK2Generator0985.zip

MAP GENERATOR INSTRUCTIONS

1) Load tool.
2) Click 'Map Generator' button.
3) Click 'Generate Landmass' until you find a landmass you want to use.
4) Click 'Generate Full'
5) Select a directory to put the map into (this is a seperate process to creating the history generation mod itself, so the map can be reused for numerous generations, or used separately to generate maps for use in development of fantasy mods etc)
6) Wait 10-15 minutes (sorry, will try speed it up but its difficult, it's doing a LOT)
7) Once the map preview turns into a colour terrain map, we're done.
8) For safety it may be a wise idea to restart the tool in case there are any bugs in history generation in the same session as map gen.
9) Select the map's directory in Alternate Map Mod box of Configuration tab.
10) Generate an alternate history as usual using the instructions above.

KNOWN ISSUES

History generator

* No nomads (disabled due to crashes / broken set up)

Map generator

* Occasionally the results of map generation crash on load, am trying to track down but in meantime just generate a new map and make sure to restart the tool between generations
* Potential for gameplay crashes so keep your autosaves regular.
* Ports need rotating to face the right direction.
* No straits created at this time between small islands / islands close to mainland
* Occasionally some of the provinces may be a bit oddly shaped / small.
* No generation options for map. Just click 'Generate Landmass' until you find one you like.
* No rivers yet
* Mountains need some work, they don't cut province borders or block movement between them.

This is not an exhaustive list I'm sure there are other issues I've forgotten or not discovered yet, so appreciate any feedback on issues, as well as fun screenshots of people's random worlds, histories and characters.

SPECIAL THANKS:

Blap Tinpinky: For helping massively with the province generation algorithms
Pirisinian: For hunting down the cause of a ridiculously frustrating bug!

 

[doccarnby]

Hm. It's not working for me, it immediately crashes. I have the .Net framework too.

 

[yemmlie101]

Can you try DLing again? I fixed some problems with the initial download

 

[doccarnby]

Ok, it's starting up now, but when I try exporting I get an Unhandled exception saying "System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'C:\Users\LEMMYMAIN\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\storygen\gfx\flags\' is denied."

 

[yemmlie101]

Should be fixed now try DLing again

 

[doccarnby]

That worked, thanks! Can't wait to try this out.

 

[yemmlie101]

Update:

* Fixed debug code that meant only polytheistic religions are created.

 

[Arcvalons]

Woo, it works with modded maps now!

Have you tested with the AGOT mod? It had some unknown odd particularity that caused the old history generation mod to not work with it.

 

[Ezumiyr]

I playtested a bit, and here are some thoughts (I don't really know what's important) :

1. In order to make it works, I needed to delete the settings file each time it crashed (and it crashed at first since there was a problem with my game path).
2. As my game path is not in C: , I need to launch a first time so the settings file is created. Then I edit the settings.
3. I can then launch the tool.
4. It works well. I noticed that in my computer I can set the cultures at less than 6 (otherwise it doesn't crash, but it runs very slowly and I can't hit the stop button). I also noticed that some islands take a lot of time to get populated (Island of course, and I think it's not bad, but also, more strangely perhaps, the mediterranean isles except Sicilia).
5. The name of the mod needs to be storygen, otherwise it crashes.
6. I just have one question : how do I make this work with mods (like HIP) ? I tried to set the specific mod folder as the path in the settings file but it doesn't seem to work.
7. Now some screenshots (first time I use dropbox for that, I hope it works) for a game (cultures and government at 6, religions at 1) after waiting 3900 (which is not enough for the settings I choose, I advise to wait more) :

Cultures map. Everything is white, otherwise it doesn't seem wrong. Culture groups are... well, groupped.

Spoiler

Now a political map. It's sometimes a bit strange, as some realms are a bit too much divided. I even saw a count that had three counties : one in Mali, one is Morocco and one in Galicia, but the situation in Arabia showes the probem very well.

Spoiler

Religions map. I think this one is very well done. It feels mostly right (with big old religions, local variants, barbarian religions, etc...)

Spoiler

An example of religion. They seem to be fully randomly generated (except the descriptions, of course), which is nice. As you can see on the same screenshot this character has a whole family (6 generations I think) but they are not listed as rulers (I could find no title history, I don't know if it's intended).

Spoiler

A government map. Theocracies, tribes, feudals and repblics but no merchants and nomads on that map. Don't know if they should be there.

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Holy places are not in weird situations.

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The two de jure Empires on the map. The blue one is good, but the other one is a bit strange.

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The de jure kingdoms. In Artois/Flanders there is none, there are other places like that (you can see two of them in Bourgogne and Genoa). My theory is that if I wait a bit more during the generation process of the toll there should not be holes like that but I'm not sure.

Spoiler

I didn't look at the decisions yet but I played 3-4 monthes in game without noticing anything too strange. I think that most of the problems should be fixed if I wait more before hitting the "stop" button during the generation.

I'm gonning to play more tomorrow but now I need to sleep. This tool is amazing. Sorry for the long post !

 

[Pirisinian]

For some reason with my generations I always end up with one massive religion spanning the map with a whole lot of smaller ones. This happens no matter how low i set the stability.

Edit: it might actually be because i didn't turn off the generator after first using it. Will try again

Edit2: Looks like blobs are common in general, especially since once the generator fills the map, nothing changes.

I playtested a bit, and here are some thoughts (I don't really know what's important)

Your images don't seem to work

 

[yemmlie101]

Modded maps won't work in this version, sorry, unless you temporarily overwrite your base game's map directory with the modded one. I need to do some more changes to allow an independent map directory to be selected (as well as to allow user to select the starting province) since when I was testing them I was hardcoding the directories. Will try and get it in for tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback!

Woo, it works with modded maps now!

Have you tested with the AGOT mod? It had some unknown odd particularity that caused the old history generation mod to not work with it.

The GoT map had some weird texture issues, I assume due to it not being compat with current version. HIP worked great though. That all said, as I stated above without hackery a custom map isn't compatible yet.

 

[BrightHelix]

Clicking the religion button (on the top bar, not the map mode) crashed my game

 

[richvh]

That's likely because of the number of holy sites for your religion not being 5.

 

[Ranamga]

After fooling around for a bit, the generator seems finicky. It'll fire exceptions and not create any files in the new mod folder at times, and other times work perfectly - I didn't change the destination path or the settings folder. It also seems to not appreciate government stability being set to 1 at all, slowing down to the point of freezing at 300 years.

After a successful export, I loaded up the mod and had a look around. Default religious stability seems to lead to one religious group ruling from Europe to India, with heresies/same group split-offs splattered here and there, and a handful of regional religions.

On to bugs/problems: Holding generation doesn't seem to obey the in-game construction laws. I saw counties with all castles and all cities, or two castles and a city, for example. If a county with a holy site has no temple, that religion only gets half the moral authority from it, too - and with every province having three holding slots, no temple can be built unless something gets razed by nomads/looters or destroyed with the console.

Cultures don't seem to be assigned colours; the cultural map is all the same shade of white that makes it impossible to tell where one culture ends and another begins.

Character generation seems to ignore crucial details - the character I picked had a 12 year old deceased mother. Who gave birth to him three years after her death.

De jure duchies can be a bit odd. They're mostly in nice, contiguous shapes that would make maps look very nice, but sometimes they'll have a random county that doesn't border any of their other de jure counties. I also noticed at least one duchy that had no de jure capital. Number of counties seem to be fine, I saw a fair range with no really massive duchies.

Some counties do not get assigned a de jure duchy. This seems to happen whenever the export function decides that that county should be held by an independent count. It mostly seems to happen with OPMs, but I saw one count with three counties. This happens at the kingdom level, too, but de jure drift can occur at that level.

Portraits seem to be a little odd. I'm not expecting Celtic portraits in Britain, or Norse portraits in Scandinavia - but African portraits in northern Finland isn't exactly believable.
There weren't any African portraits in actual Africa, either - just a mix of Iberian and steppe portraits.

Republics don't seem to be generated as merchant republics, even when their capital is coastal. The government type doesn't change when the game is unpaused, either.

Not sure if this is a bug with the naming system, but I noticed several characters with single letters for their names. (King T, King B, Chief K.) They were all in different cultural groups. T was the character with the 12 year old deceased mother who conceived and gave birth posthumously, if that helps.

Religions seem to get generated with the "no matrilineal marriages" trait often (or religions share traits with other religious groups) - that doesn't seem to prevent Agnatic-Cognatic succession. Which comes default for some cultures. (On the plus side, Way of Life foci seem to work fine, which leaves Seduction as an option to prevent game over.)

 

[Ezumiyr]

I think my images should work now.

I checked and I noticed the same things as Ranamga, except that de de jure duchies don't seem too bad on my map (but some of them don't have a de jure capital indeed).
A few more screenshots :
A King R.

Spoiler

King W. R and W seem to be the only mono-letter rulers, so it might be a rare thing. At least it's not common.

Spoiler

Some theocrats are not localized as theocrats. Also, li(t)chi people.

Spoiler

This kingdom has only black shields.

Spoiler

Salt is a lichi.

Spoiler

 

[Old Man Jenkins]

This is some boss stuff right here.

 

[richvh]

Problems:

• Bookmarks. The generated mod has a common/bookmarks folder, but no 00_bookmarks.txt file, so vanilla bookmarks are used with invalid characters
• Buildings. Vanilla buildings are used, so all cultural buildings have vanilla culture requirements.
• CBs. Vanilla CBs are used, some of which reference vanilla cultures, religions or titles.
• Characters. Validator is complaining about declarations (dynasty, female, mother, father) lines coming after the date lines, but that's probably it being picky.
• Cultures. The generated cultures don't have color lines.
• Decisions, events and traits. Vanilla decisions, events and traits are used, many of which reference vanilla cultures, religions and titles.
• Province history: You are setting max_settlements to 3 for each province, but landed_titles only lists one barony per county, so the second and third settlements are unbuildable.
• Titles: Adjectives for the titles are missing from localization (e.g., e_salgierma_adj)

 

[biwakat]

I cannot export or select an Install Dir even do I have downloaded Microsoft Net 4.5. It just says: exception error...blablabla

 

[yemmlie101]

"exception error...blablabla"

Thanks - sadly this isn't quite as clear information on the exception as I could use

To make it clear, I don't get ANY exceptions this end, and exception are there to provide the programmer with info on where the exception happens, so if you do, I have no way of fixing it without the contents of the exception on this thread

Some great feedback here on other stuff, thanks guys. But yeah, if you get an exception please expand it and print it here and I can likely fix the problem that causes it.

 

[Vintage Zombie]

This is extremely cool. A few notes from my first run:

- The whole world except south and east India belongs to one of three culture groups: Tabaddelim, Daiyadelim, and 'Barbarian'.

- Perhaps because of this homogeneity, almost everything - kingdoms, baronies, cultures, religions, etc. - ends with '-delim'. I'm guessing this is a highly productive suffix in the generated language (if the language generator works like that), but it looks pretty odd - it's so common that it seems redundant, like adding a meaningless sound to the end of every word in English.

- This may be WAD at the moment, but groups (cultural and religious) don't seem to entail much internal homogeneity: one Xirbodi religion, for instance, allows five wives, raiding, invasions, monasticism, heir designation, and causes rulers to lose prestige for being at peace, while its neighbour - the mainstream Xirbodi religion - only allows monasticism and forbids matrilineal marriage. The two religions don't seem particularly related, if you see what I mean.

I'm curious about a few things, too. How does the language generator work? When making culture groups, does it apply variations to a single language to generate names, etc.? Currently, there doesn't seem to be much of a relationship between the languages spoken within a culture group. I notice a few things, too, like the same culture seemingly having two ways of writing [tʃ] - not unheard of, but a little odd.