Crete "Dev Diary"
Some of you probably know that Ordep and I are currently working on a Briton themed update, so you may wonder why we are doing a dev diary on Crete, of all places. As ROI is being released earlier than we expected, we agreed it was best to save the Briton stuff for the first major post-ROI release (1.6.0), so that we have adequate time to work on and test it. While looking for something nice to add to this weekend's update, the final one before ROI, (and also to give myself a short break from the Briton shenanigans like Celtic festivals and Merlin and what have you), I stumbled on Crete, and decided why the heck not. This coming update will thus feature the lovely island as the star of the mini-themed update.
The five families of Crete.
First things first - we are adding a new Muslim "republic," the Emirate of Crete. It is already playable from the 867 start (and only the 867 start), but now it is a "republic" with five patrician families - three Andalusian and two Greek (one Orthodox, the other Sunni). Historically, the Emirate of Crete has an interesting story. It was founded by Andalusians who were expelled from Umayyad Spain for partaking in a rebellion; these refugees first conquered Alexandria for the lulz, and, when they were kicked out, decided to go to Crete. From Crete, they engaged in much raiding, particularly on the ERE; Byzantine sources give a very unfavorable impression of them, unsurprisingly. Yet, Arabic sources from the time describe Crete as extremely prosperous with a high standard of living, a land of opportunity of sorts, where trade and commerce flourished.
Note the new fun event pics for Muslim Republics. ^^
As the Emirate of Crete, you may even get Muslim courtiers from time to time, migrating from the nearby regions of the North Africa and Levant to seek new opportunities in your land of opportunity, your Muslim “republic” (as was historically the case). Overall, the Emirate, which previously was a quirky and interesting challenge in vanilla, is now even more quirky and interesting - will your maritime exploits be enough to keep you alive (as it apparently did, for a while), or will the ethnic and religious divisions cause problems, allowing you to be curbstomped by the Byzantines like what happened historically? It's quite unfortunate there isn't too much material available on this fascinating period in Crete's history, but oh well.
Wine, women, and song, Cretan folk style.
Other than adding in Crete as a Republic, those who rule Crete (that is, have a demesne province or capital there), also have access to a little special decision - "Attend Cretan Wine Festival" - where you get to, well, attend one of the local wine festivals. Crete was a wine producing region, and many of the local festivities revolved around that. It's a small decision (small as in still larger than PI’s Passover event chain), but a fun little one. Besides that, Ordep and I are also planning a few flavor events and event chains for those lucky enough to live in Crete, dealing with topics such as Cretan cheese pies and possible encounters with the remains of the Minoan civilization. We’ll also have a Greek music pack.
No Dracula, but I have a bad feeling about this…
So that's pretty it for this small, themed update. A number of you said you really enjoyed the little touches VIET did to make different regions feel more unique, so this is sort of the stuff we want to do more in the future (not that we won't focus on big, religious updates like we have been). In fact you can think of this Crete stuff as a preview of the culture and region-unique stuff Ordep and I are planning to do in the future (such as the Briton stuff, which we are still also currently working on). Over time, you'll hopefully see an even more diverse world than what VIET currently has - not only will it make a difference whether you start as an Orthodox Christian or a Manichean Gnostic, or a Russian or a Greek Orthodox character, it'll also make a difference whether you're a Greek character on Crete or one in Sicily. I dunno if we'll ever get to cover every part of the CKII world, but we'll try. Obviously many play Crete ever, but I hope it’s a nice surprise if you do manage to rule Crete and these little bits of flavor pop up.
Unrelated pic of baklava/
Overall, as I hinted in the past, we are trying to change the way VIET releases new stuff: now, instead of seeing big honking updates every once in a while, updates will be smaller and more focused. So, for instance, instead of seeing one big pan-Slavic and Slavic pagan update, you might see three separate updates for the south, east, and west Slavs - maybe even more, if necessary. This will not only allow us to (ironically) put in more and more detailed content, but also allow us to work at a more leisurely pace.
Oblivion has really beautiful sunsets. Pic also unrelated.
Additionally, as a side note - some of you may have suspected, but my recovery is going well, as I'm able to do more things now. Frankly. however, I guess it's pointless to talk about whether I’ll “officially” “return” to modding or not as my situation is very delicate, complex, and fluctuating, so at this point I don't really know when I'll be completely off the hook. Still, once I figured I could mod on the ipad I was already back in some capacity. Anyhow, all that aside, after this Crete business and the post-ROI integration, our next stop are the Britons, and Ordep will hopefully be writing the dev diary for that, so stay tuned for that. (And, as another side note, for those plagued with endless egg festivals and incurable cinnamon toast crunch addiction, we have been able to figure out ways to fix those (hopefully))
And so, Ordep and I invite you to the beautiful island of Crete! Seriously, though, yes, pic also sort of unrelated, but it apparently is from Crete. Greece has such beautiful islands, I love ‘em.
More republics are always good!
