Weekly Dev Diary #3

[Groogy]

So that time of the week again and its time for me to make something up to write about. Today I decided to talk about regions and forts, two new concepts in Crusader Kings II.

First, regions isn't something that is going to affect you directly but it works somewhat like how it have done in the Europa Universalis Games. It's an area on the map that denotes a region with a name and it's mostly used to improve on our localization of things, such as hunting for tigers in India or hunting a deer in western Europe. So no longer will you find Tigers in the woods of Poland if you manage to move your capital of your Indian Empire out of the subcontinent. You can see these regions by opening up a province and click on the new region icon to get an outline of the region. It's also possible to search for regions in the old title finder.

Next is a gameplay feature you will actually interact a bit more actively in. It's called forts which is an additional type of holding you can build in provinces next to the normal ones and trade posts. Because of this we had to extend the province view with a window you can open and close which will show "extra holding slots" which will contain the trade post and fort slots. The fort can be built anywhere from your own territory even enemy provinces that you have under your control. Their biggest advantage is that they are fortifications that you can build up really fast and very cheaply. The main point of them being to let you build up a region as your march towards a big neighbor which will let you slow down their advance but at the same time let you set up forward positions in the enemy territory.

They do have some added bonuses though beyond that, for instance in Tribal land where you have the homeland attrition bonus, that bonus will be removed from the province as long as you have a fort there to supply your troops with. There is also a feature for the forts that is too related to the expansion so I can't delve into that any deeper.


And again here's some more random changelogs

Spoiler

- Fixed crash when a war is invalidated because of no defender
- Fixed the "hostile against everyone" bug
- Fixed bug where the AI would keep their units attached to characters they no longer participate in a war with.
- Added alert for having high prio minor titles available to grant.
- Fixed various provinces in India that had no rulers scripted for some start dates.
- Monks and other people living in celibacy will no longer try to arrange stealth marriages if ruled by a patrician.
- Defensive religions now properly also give defensive modifiers for Camel Cavalry and Elephants.

 

[Silfae]

Seems ever more promising.
So, we can build forts in the enemy territory as we're waging war against them?
Also, since we were talking about customized governments, could it be possible to limit a government to use forts as main holding? Even more, could it be possible to play without any holding but forts? That could allow for a more fluid gameplay for tribals, especially in the steppes, as you'd be, in a way, landless.

 

[Groogy]

Out of 620 log changes, how many is that (in total)?

We are closer to 700 now

 

[Groogy]

This seems to be the highlight of the upcoming patch. Is this bug actually fixed for good now?

We can only pray to the Justice-Giver that he shall be merciful upon us.

 

[Silfae]

Could the forts work in peace times as well? Could a ruler's entire demesne be composed by forts, with the holdings he's in being held by other rulers independent from him?

 

[Groogy]

Question: does the region system act for the vassal levy penalty like different de-jure before?
e.g. a baron outside your capital-empire just gives you 25% of his total levy
now can we get this penalty for the region but no the de-jure?

De-jure still remains the same, regions are more for localisation in events and decisions

 

[Groogy]

Seconding the question on whether forts stay in enemy territory despite the end of the war.

Fort Holdings are removed when the participant leaves the war, unless the Fort Holdings are in provinces they own themselves (a.k.a. in lands they took from signing a peace deal). They are also destroyed whenever they are sieged down.

 

[Groogy]

Hang on a second, trade posts inside the extra holding window?

Will we finally have a trading mechanic which is not restricted to veneza/republic DLC?

If you look closely enough you will see the button is disabled.

 

[Groogy]

I think you're missing the part where they're running out of things to tell us about the free patch. NEXT WEEK WE GET DLC NEWS!... or everyone's favorite troll Groogy will post a whole devlog with Hedgehogs

I can do that no problem. Have a sneak picture of next dev diary.

 

[Groogy]

In my opinion, this is the best thing we will release, and I loved Rajas Of India and The Old Gods a lot.

 

[Groogy]

Sorry Rogue can't

Awesome.
I have three questions, I would be pleased if you could only answer one of them right now, but I would be oh so overjoyed if you could answer all three.

1. Can a hostile nation walk past a territory that has an enemy fort built in it.
2. How does one hold a hedgehog while not getting pricked?
3. Are there different levels of forts?

No, you hold it tenderly and closely and no

 

[Groogy]

Oh I think I somehow I think there came a misunderstanding in reference to forts. Yes you can walk past them. My no was in reference to about how you get prickled by a hedgehog. Actually pet hedgehogs don't prick you, mine at least want to cuddle with you all time.


PS: Also forts are perfectly scriptable, just like any other holding.

 

[Groogy]

Im a little obsessed right now, dont judge.

I like Mad Max....

... as long as you stop referring to my posts as mediocre....of course....

 

[Groogy]

Does it say in the patch notes that Groogy is going for the USA presidency on a pro hedgehog agenda ?

Yes, its the patch log entry #389

 

[Groogy]

No that's not how regions work. There is no "Rome" region that encompasses the old possessions of Rome. There is Asia Minor, West Europe, and similar.

 

[Groogy]

The problem with that is that certain areas of the map, such as Mauretania, Syria, Bavaria and Hungary, don't conform to Roman borders. LoR's Imperial Reconquest leaves you with ugly borders because the game's de jure structure is based on 1066 even in CM and TOG. Considering CM was meant to focus on Charlemagne's attempt to restore the Roman Empire, it should have included the WRE as an alternative to the HRE, a re-creatable Roman culture (Iberio-Roman and Gallo-Roman really should have been added too), the historical Chalcedonian faith and the schism (If mods can do it, so can you), and a de jure structure that suits the era.

EDIT: Hellenic was also present in Morea until the 870s, so you missed an opportunity there too. It's known the Hellenics who lived there used the crescent moon of Hecate on their shields, so you could have included a model pack.

No because of reasons I feel too obvious to say. I can start with that Charlemagne didn't try to recreate the WRE he was piecing together his father's empire, his model of land owner obligation were based on theirs but if anything he was doing big moves away from the old. Being crowned by the pope being one of them

If mods change any of this, good for them. Use them instead.

 

[Groogy]

The Frisians were confined to the coastal areas, the interior was Frankish.

Regardless of how poor the peasants in Spain and Gaul were, they still spoke Latin and were Roman cultured. The Visigothic elite spoke Latin and the vast majority of the people in Charlemagne's empire spoke Gallic Latin.

In my reality everybody spoke pig latin.

(With that I want to say you are ludicrous because only 400 towns went through the Romanization during the time of the Empire and not entire populations)

 

[Groogy]

You'd actually be 99% correct for most of Europe (The good bits anyway).

... I don't think you understand what I ment with Pig Latin...

 

[Groogy]

And to expand on the Romanization and "Colonization" of Roman culture, there's a reason why not every province was a Senatorial Province, and being a Colonia was a mark of progress within the empire and only the most converted regions would actually be recognized as fully roman and be allowed part of the senate for instance (now I'm no expert in Roman history and politics because I find it dull and boring) But I can safely say that northern France or Spain was not recognized as Senatorial provinces, however what is later known as Granada and Aquitaine was as they had become successfully colonized by Rome.

 

[Groogy]

... You are now comparing two fundamentally different things now. that's strategical interest not political. The point is that they would never allow non-romans into the political system without converting them first. And apparently there were plenty of population excluded.