Hello everyone, and welcome to another Elder Kings 2 dev diary!
Today we won't show any new big defining feature, but we'll rather focus on flavor and general mechanics.
We will show you a new Perk Tree in the Martial lifestyle, a bunch of unique buildings, a dash of cultural flavor, and some nice religious flavor. We hope you'll enjoy it!
The Plunderer Perk Tree
Those of you who have played the first Elder Kings know that we handled raiding a bit differently from vanilla. While vanilla CK2 restricted raiding to tribals or unreformed religions, Elder Kings allowed everyone to raid.
The same question had to be asked for CK3 and Elder Kings 2, and we wanted to reach a middle ground between the vanilla approach (heavily restrict who can raid), and the EK1 approach (everyone can raid).
To reach that compromise, we present you the Plunderer Perk Tree.
As you can guess, this perk tree will focus on looting, raiding, and plundering foreign land.
This perk tree contains 7 perks and the Plunderer trait, and will allow you to raid (including overseas) and boost the results of your raids.
Land Raids (starting perk):
Raid Speed +25%
Unlocks Raiding
Sea Raids (requires Land Raids):
Embarkation Cost -25%
Naval Speed +25%
Unlocks Raiding over seas
Sacred Raids (requires Land Raids):
You gain piety when bringing the loot home, equal to the amount of gold and prestige you get.
So if you bring 20 loot back, you'll get 20 piety in addition to the 20 gold and 20 prestige
Grand Raider (requires Sea Raids and Sacred Raids):
Increases the resources gained when bringing the loot back home by 25%
So if you bring 100 loot back, you'll get 125 gold, prestige, and piety instead of 100
Prisoners and Loot... (requires Grand Raiders):
Increases the chances of capturing a prisoner when raiding a ruler's capital
Loot and Prisoners... (requires Grand Raiders):
When bringing the loot back home, a small amount of development will be added to domain's provinces
Every 5 loot will add 1 development point to a random domain province, targetting in priority those closest to the next development progress cap.
So if you bring 100 loot back, and have one province at 95 development progress, another at 70, and a last one at 50, the first province will receive 5 development progress, and the second one 15
Raider Blood (requires Prisoners and Loot... and Loot and Prisoners...):
You gain a small amount of renown when you bring the loot back home
Bringing 50 loot home will award 5 renown, in addition to the 62~63 gold, prestige, and piety)
Plunderer (requires Raider Blood):
Awards the Plunderer trait
Martial +2
Stewardship +1
Prowess +2
Army Loot Capacity +100%
Hopefully this tree will allow you to fulfill all your Raiding needs!
Unique Buildings
The world of the Elder Scrolls is filled with special buildings, ranging from a gorgeous location, to a City considered the seat of the biggest Empire of Tamriel, with great Temples and holy walls in between.
It would be impossible to represent each and every special location we see in game, so we try to strike a nice balance between enjoyable gameplay, and löre fidelity.
We'll start with the Imperial City. Seat of countless Empires through the ages, the Imperial City is, by far, the largest settlement in the world of TES. It is home to hundreds of thousands or millions of people, hundreds of cults, the Dragonfires, White-Gold Tower, it is the seat of the Elder Council, and so on.
To properly represent its potential, it has - and by a large margin - the highest concentration of unique buildings.
You will find the Arcane University, the Imperial City Harbor, the Bastion, the Temple of the One, the Imperial City Arena, Port Hestra, and obviously White-Gold Tower. It also has a unique duchy building, aptly named 'The Imperial City', so rulers who own the own Imperial Isle can really punch above their weight.
Just like in vanilla, some settlements are built close to very rich or unique ore veins, that can be exploited to make the province, and by extension its owner, very rich.
We have four exemples here:
The Sulfur Deposits of Aalto
Eastmarch has distinctively yellow water sources in some places during the Second Era. We decided to represent them via sulfur deposits, which are both very used in smithing, alchemy, gunpowder, and so on. Exploiting the deposits might not be as lucrative as ebony or amethyst, but it has the unique effect of making your Heavy Infantry and Spearmen considerably stronger - due to the higher quality of their weapons and armor.
The Amethyst Mine of Kulati
Kulati is knwon for its amethyst, the most beautiful in possibly all of Tamriel. Very expensive and very much wanted by the nobility, controlling the Mine here will make you one of the richest lords of Hammerfell.
The Lapis Lazuli Mine of Del's Claim
Found in Auridon, the second largest isle of the Summerset Isles, the Lapis Lazuli deposits were first found by Del, and the city was built around it and named in their honour. While not as expensive as Amethyst, it is still a very lucrative investment, and anyone who would like to forge a kingdom in Auridon should keep a close eye on these mines.
Ebony Mines of Ravenrock
Known by those who played Bloodmoon or Dragonborn, Ravenrock caught the attention of the East Empire Company during the end of the Third Era for its potential ebony deposits. They found even more than what they thought, and the settlement of Ravenrock was soon the center of attention in Solstheim.
While it is very much outside the time frame of Elder Kings II, it is possible that the mine would have been built if a previous expedition reported that they found Ebony.
Each faith has holy sites, and each holy site should have a special building. While most holy sites are very happy with a big temple, some require a bit more finesse in ther building design.
Leki's Blade
Leki's Blade, deep within Hammerfell, teaches the finest students of Hammerfell the ancient arts of the sword. Both an important center of martial knowledge, and a holy building, it is a more martial oriented holy site.
Walls of Solitude
Built ages ago, each brick composing the walls around Haafingar's capital has been blessed by the Divines, protecting the city ever since. Over time however, knowledge of these blessings has been lost... But by reiterating the divine rituals once again, these walls will both protect the city and show the piety of the city's ruler!
Dragon Temple and Daedric Shrine
Two more generic holy buildings, that you can build in respectively any faith with the Dragons as its pantheon, and any with one specific Daedra in their pantheon.
There are many more unique buildings in Tamriel, but we can't show them all! We wouldn't want to completely spoil the surprise after all.
The Blood Price (Orsimer flavor):
The Orcs in Tamriel have a slightly different way of dealing with prisoners. Instead of letting them rot in a cell, they tend to extract what is called a 'Blood Price'. While this Blood Price does not have to be paid in blood - silver might do just fine, it is also a way to weaken potential rivals - after all an Orc that cannot fight will not draw a large amount of followers.
When an Orc captures someone, they will ask for a Blood Price. The victim can either pay the ransom and be free, or decide that they could prove their worth by letting the jailor let them bleed for a while.
How much blood has to be spilt depends on the crime. Someone you captured in a war and that has not done you any wrong can be free to go with just a small amount of blood loss, while someone that should be executed will bleed for hours, if not days.
Depending on the imprisoned character's crime and current health, they might very well die...
The Ristaag (All-Maker flavor):
And now for someone less bloody! The Skaal of Solstheim believe in the All-Maker, and have dedicated rituals to perform should they need the All-Maker's support. One of these rituals is the Ristaag, a ritual hunt during which the Skaal will search for the Totem of Claw and Fang, use it to summon a powerful Spirit Bear, and slay it. Completing the ritual will show to the All-Maker that the Skaal are grateful for His protection, and will grant whoever started the ritual with a powerful Popular Opinion and Control Growth bonus.
Summon Dragons (Dragon Cultist flavor):
To stay in northern Tamriel, those who follow the Dragons - that is to say, not a lot of people - can spend large amounts of piety to call one for help in battle.
This Dragon will fight at your side, but do not expect them to stay here for long - you serve them, not the opposite.
As long as the Dragon is with you however, there won't be a lot of people who could defeat you in battle - and they are especially effective when the battle has been won and they can torch the battlefield.
A Dragon will cost several thousand points of Piety and does not replenish - as I said they will not stick around you forever.
They are to be called and used in times in need, or when you want to fight a much larger enemy - perhaps an Empire or even Living Gods..?
This is all for today, and I will leave you with a small teaser! We hope you enjoyed this dev diary, and as always make sure to check our Discord server where you can learn more about the mod, and get more teasers and screenshots.
Have a fantastic day!