CKII is released.

[Kayerts]

How did Lubeck gain ground? It's pretty much an impossible county to play.

Nah, Lubeck's quite viable, at least if you swear fealty to the King of Denmark at the start of the game. (It gives you protection against the Pomeralians and lets you war against minor Danish nobles with impunity.) Wouldn't be surprised if their territorial gains here postdated their absorption into some larger state. (Sounds like it was Mecklenburg?)

 

[hoverdog]

How did Lubeck gain ground? It's pretty much an impossible county to play.

It was conquered by Mecklemburg in the very first years of the game. Wends went on to capture the whole mainland Denmark. Lubeck was a mecklemburgian vassal that rebelled. Do not worry, all is well now.
Estonia is now even scarier than before (Rostov-like conquers scary), unfortunately Pomeralia has lost a civil war and now there's an independent duchy of Stettin with holdings in Hamburg, however ridiculous it sounds.
On my end almost everything is well. In an unlikely turn of events one of my vassals inherited several counties in Portugal. I'm not completely sure what it was all about. This sheikh controlled one county, I offered vassalization and he agreed. Then I saw that his heir was under different liege and if he dies I lose the province. So I did the obvious - killed the heir (it was his grandson or somesuch), and the next one, and - voila - HE inherited his gradson's territory

 

[JarlFrank]

Anyone tried Abyssinia yet? I did and got gobbled up by the Caliphate pretty quickly.

 

[XenomorphII]

Anyone tried Abyssinia yet? I did and got gobbled up by the Caliphate pretty quickly.

I have several times (them and Axum as well). As Axum you can swear fealty to the Caliph, but sooner or later he will push crown authority up and start demanding titles from you. Without mercenaries or holy orders to call on (and starting out with 0 techs) means that if it comes to a fight you lose.

It might be possible to swear to one of the two Christian empires (as a duke) or become Catholic to protect yourself, but I haven't ever tried that, and I doubt it would make much difference.

 

[sser]

How did Lubeck gain ground? It's pretty much an impossible county to play.

I'm playing them right now. I'm now the Duke of Mecklenburg, if that means anything. Taking Denmark would be a matter of the area fracturing and swooping in at the right time. Per my game, that would just require some patience -- they're always fighting amongst themselves. Hell, at one point I could have taken Wales, but I was too busy elsewhere (and I don't know how naval transportation works). I made a lot of gold by banishing the tons and tons of pagans you start with. Used that gold to build infrastructure and hire mercenaries to defend/expand.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

It's the year 1107, and I somehow ended up converting to Iconoclasm as Georgia. The entire region, BE included, is getting their asses handed to them by Mosul, and I think I'm next on their hit-list. Fortunately, the Emir of Azerbaijan keeps attacking me, and keeps paying huge reparations after losing, so I have a ton of money saved up for mercenaries. I'd take initiative and start a holy war for Armenia, but every time I've tried to push back the Muslim menace, the whole goddamned Arabic peninsula would gang up on me instantly. Fucking Muslims. Guess I'll be expanding around the Caspian Sea, and we'll see how hard it is to convert the Ilkhanate to Orthodox Iconoclasm.

I'm using Vaarna's fix to see how that influences the blobs. Thus far, HRE is as powerful as ever, and Norway holds the entirety of Scandinavia. BE, however, seems to be affected somewhat, as I've seen at least two kingdoms (Armenia and something else) successfully break away. The Middle East is a total clusterfuck.

 

[Kayerts]

Anyone tried Abyssinia yet? I did and got gobbled up by the Caliphate pretty quickly.

I have several times (them and Axum as well). As Axum you can swear fealty to the Caliph, but sooner or later he will push crown authority up and start demanding titles from you. Without mercenaries or holy orders to call on (and starting out with 0 techs) means that if it comes to a fight you lose.

It might be possible to swear to one of the two Christian empires (as a duke) or become Catholic to protect yourself, but I haven't ever tried that, and I doubt it would make much difference.

Seems like the thing for Abyssinia to do after bulldozing Hared is to leapfrog over the Caliphate and forge a north African empire, a la House Spartenos. You can knock out Cyrenaica and Tripolitania easily in holy wars, though you should probably skip Cyrenaica, since it provides a non-jihadable buffer against the caliphate. By the time the caliph manages to take out the core Abyssinian holdings, your northern provinces should be re-educated.

As for Axum, you can still try the leapfrog strategy, but ultimately, it is better to live for the Emperor than to die for yourself.

 

[curry]

1.05 changelog

MAJOR:
- You can now ask to join many types of wars
- Participants in wars now get a contribution score which determines how much prestige and piety they get when the war ends
- Crusades now target entire de jure kingdoms. The Pope declares the war and other rulers can then join the attacking alliance. The one who contributes the most gains the targeted kingdom.
- Streamlined marriage interface allowing matrilineal betrothals
- Loads of new events for regencies, friendships and rivalries
- Plot to revoke the title of a vassal
- The Kill Plot is now more available and targets a wider selection of logical characters
- Portrait clothes are now uncoupled from ethnicity
- Added Causes of Death
- Added some purely naval mercenary units
- Improved military AI
- Armies can now be "attached" to each other, which means they will just follow the lead army
- Duchies can now be assimilated into another de jure kingdom (takes 100 years)
- Now possible to create titular titles at double cost if you hold the scripted capital
- Empires are now allowed to create kingdoms
- You can now only create kingdoms if you are already a king or emperor, or hold more than one duchy titles
- Added the kingdoms of Frisia, Lotharingia, Bavaria, Pomerania, Aquitaine and Brittany
- The kingdoms of Galicia and Navarre are now de jure kingdoms
- The kingdom of Al-Andalus is now called Andalusia and can be created by anyone in the Arabic culture group
- Changed "Ducal Claim" wars to "De Jure Claim". De Jure kings and emperors can now take counties in their de jure realm
- Assassinations are now more expensive depending on the rank of the target
- All factions in civil wars are now hostile to outside attackers
- Cannot end civil wars until the temporarily independent vassal has no holdings occupied by outsiders
- Tribal Invasion CB: Now destroys all duchies and kingdoms in the conquered realm
- Children now always get the same education type as their guardian
- The Holy Order troop size now scales with the moral authority of the church
- Republics now get a special CB to seize coastal provinces
- Republics (count or above tier) now get a tax bonus from all cities in their realm
- Republics (count or above tier) now get an extra tax bonus from all coastal cities in their realm
- Republics (duke or above tier) now get an extra tax bonus from their capital city
- Women and illegitimate bastards no longer get pressed (inheritable) claims on their parents' titles
- You can now press the claims of female courtiers and vassals in wars if the target title does not have Agnatic succession
- AI: Vassals should now try to defeat peasant rebels on their own
- AI: Will no longer raise forces in besieged counties
- AI: Nearby religious brethren will now tend to join defenders in Holy Wars
- AI: Lowered general vassal revolt risk and DoW aggressiveness
- Cut the Religious Assistance CB
- There is now a "Plot" button in the character view, offering a more flexible way of picking plots against characters
- Fixed an issue with weird (often infinite) build times that could occur after reload
- Vassals will no longer hate you for newly acquired Holdings that take you above the demesne limit. You have two months to get rid of them.
- Heavily revised vassal revolt risk calculations
- Made the revolters in independence wars start gaining ticking war score, and do so immediately
- Fixed a crash when switching between tabs in the Plot View

MINOR:
- Embarked armies no longer suffer attrition
- Withdrawing a small enough army from combat no longer leads to a general retreat
- Rebalanced combat a bit - more morale damage, less kills
- Fixed a bug preventing claimants to the Caliphates from ever revolting
- Fixed an issue with succession CB holders not using it because they are currently the heir presumptive
- The opinion effect of gifts now depend on the State Diplomacy of the giver and the greed of the recipient
- Gift recipients who are not your vassals (or below) will appreciate gifts more
- Landless characters now also get an AI personality from traits
- Added more and greater opinion modifiers from characters having the same traits
- The console command "debug fow" is now just "fow" and works in Release builds too
- The invite to plot selection list of characters now excludes those who would never ever join
- Better tooltip for the "not willing to join plot" icon when inviting people to plots
- Glowing borders on selected titles in the Title View
- More likely to see different unit type models on the map
- Added console command "charinfo" to toggle debug information in character portrait tooltip
- AI: Honorable and dishonorable (personality from traits) characters should now respond more plausibly to invitations to murder plots
- AI: Improved councillor appointment
- AI: More careful about trying to pass de jure law changes during wars
- AI: Smarter about revolting during the lieges offensive wars
- AI: A bit more reluctant to accept ending a plot
- AI: Will now want to raise or hire a more overwhelming force
- AI: Smarter about creating and usurping titles
- AI: Smarter about handing out titles
- AI: Will now actually look at the defines MAX_ELECTOR_TITLES_LEGALLY_HELD and MAX_DUCHIES_LEGALLY_HELD when handing out titles
- AI: Checks if mercs are an option when evaluating DoW
- AI: Fixed an issue with piecemeal raising of ships
- AI: Fixed several issues with Mongol Horde DoW logic
- AI: Landed spouses will no longer revolt
- AI: Fixed some bugs with bishop nomination
- AI: Fixed a bug where the AI could ignore some rules when granting titles (could grant contested titles, etc)
- Children born to parents in a matrilineal marriage should now end up in the mother's court
- Fixed a bug with abdication from war in elective monarchies that could result in premature Game Over
- Crown authority in titular kingdoms and empires can now also be lowered by lost civil wars
- Fixed a crash when just about to revoke the title of someone, and that person dies
- Added some more loading tips
- Fixed a bug with the "prisoner" event effect when releasing characters from someone other than their liege
- Unit owners now get a fraction of the prestige and piety gained from battles (and not just commanders)
- Increased the piety and prestige gained from battles a lot
- Characters can now only pick the Amass Wealth ambition once
- Fathers will now like their children a lot
- Fixed a bug with the inheritance of Claims
- Fixed some errors with the tooltips in event 301 ("A Bastard is Born")
- Tweaked the succession situation between Flandres and Hainaut in 1066 to avoid Flandres becoming part of the HRE
- The members of the House of Vermandois are now members of House Karling
- Vassals now only like succession laws in secondary kingdoms if they are de facto below it
- Gavelkind law in secondary kingdoms has no opinion effects unless the ruler has more than one holding there
- Added early kings of England to the history files
- Temple type holders will no longer desire their liege's titles for de jure reasons
- Temple type holders will no longer be upset with their liege for having the wrong government type
- Fixed a bug with protected inheritance not working correctly between two realms, both with protected inheritance
- Nerfed the Pagan warrior cult building by 33%
- The text for the assassination action now mentions the cost
- Can now only repeat the same plot type, not ambitions
- Improved DoW warning texts
- Changed the initial succession laws of the Spanish kingdoms to Gavelkind
- Gave the Victual Brothers their ships back
- Bohemund of Taranto is no longer a bastard
- Fixed a bug where a dead husband of a newly pregnant wife would not count as a husband
- The conduct diplomacy button is now hidden for dead characters
- Fixed some issues with the "elector titles held" penalty in empires
- The Hordes lose the Tribal invasion CB if they go Christian
- Fixed a bug with the 'is_mercenary' trigger
- Gave Pisa some starting buildings in 1066
- Tweaked the Holy Order levy composition
- Adjusted the map so that the Duchy of Tyrol is no longer split in two
- The Kingdom of Byzantium can no longer be created
- Vassal mercs now cost half maintenance
- The Kill Spouse plot decisions are now less likely to actually succeed
- Open succession law (the Muslim default) now makes succession crisis revolts much more likely
- You are now allowed to usurp titles from other vassals within the same realm if you have a claim on the title
- Fixed a bug with the tooltip for the 'has_objective' trigger
- Fixed some issues with some male hair styles being invalidated when they should not be
- Mercenary captains should now wear helmets again
- You no longer get Piety from handing out the same title to the Church multiple times
- You no longer get Piety from handing out duchies and above to clergy
- The Piety from giving a county to the Church is now 50 (down from 100)
- Boosted the arrival strength of the Timurids
- Uncles and aunts are now also valid successors in elective monarchies
- Removed the warning text and special AI acceptance rulers when marrying a member of the _same_ dynasty matrilineally
- Fixed a bug with Fertility set from modifiers
- Holdings under construction should now also correctly benefit from councillor jobs
- Fixed an issue with historical settlements not being cleared entirely correctly on save game load
- Fixed a bug with certain event target trigger tooltips
- Added a tooltip to the "character" trigger
- Corrected some title adjectives
- Fixed a bug with the 'claimed_by' trigger tooltip
- Fixed a mismatch between potential revolters in the alert and in the Intrigue View
- Mercs of the same culture group as you can now always be hired, no matter the distance to your capital
- Lieges of dead characters are now saved and shown
- The decision to repent (getting your excommunication lifted) now gives the correct opinion modifier, making the character immune to a new excommunication for 10 years
- Fixed a bug where successors could be temporarily disinherited when Temple holdings were assigned a new holder
- Fixed multiple issues with the law change plots

FOR MODDERS:
- The line "nudge_allowed=yes" in "settings.txt" will turn on the in-game map positioning editor (there is a button called "Nudge" in the starting screen.)
- The de jure liege of titles can now be changed through events and scripted history ("de_jure_liege")
- You now see all plots in "observe" mode
- Exported MAX_GENERATED_TRAITS_FOR_HISTORICAL to defines (controls the maximum number of random traits that are generated for historical scripted characters)
- Added a 'destroy_landed_title' event effect
- Added a 'give_minor_title' effect
- Added trigger 'holding_type'
- Exported some merc and holy order hire cost factors to defines
- Mercenary companies can now be scripted with a "strength_growth_per_century" value (in landed_titles.txt)
- The Legalism effects on demesne size is exported to "defines.lua"
- Added plot type 'realm_titles'
- Added trigger 'held_title_rating = [num/target]'
- Event modifiers are now read from multiple files
- Cut the non-functional trigger 'num_of_ports'
- The trigger 'monthly_income' now actually works
- Timed opinion modifiers with value 0 are now added, but not listed in tooltips (useful as a kind of flag in events.)
- Added 'creation_effect' to character objectives
- Exported DOW_AGGRESSION_FACTOR and REVOLT_AGGRESSION_FACTOR to defines
- Added event trigger and effect; 'custom_tooltip'

Too bad they didn't just remove the entire Send Assassin mechanic and let all assassinations happen through the plot system

 

[Malakal]

Plots are wayyy too random for that to work right now. Maybe in the future.

 

[Trash]

Looks good, especially the additions to the warfare and crusade system and the new events. Shame they still haven't implemented childbirth events to keep a bit of randomness. Thankfully those are easy to implement by oneself.

 

[curry]

Plots are wayyy too random for that to work right now. Maybe in the future.

The plot system does have the potential to be awesome. The problem now is that the AI just spams assassins until it kills every character that's between it and the title it wants, regardless of opinion. It's tedious and predictable and you just need to figure out who's doing the killing and kill that guy first. In medieval times assassinations were rare and elaborate and I think the plot system could simulate that. If the target list included, lets say, independent rulers of the same religion and all title holders in the same realm with negative opinion, it would provide both enough targets and it would make the relationship system more useful.

 

[IDtenT]

Plots are wayyy too random for that to work right now. Maybe in the future.

I think he was being sarcastic. Although with Curry you never know, he says everything in a negative way.

Nevermind. Ninja'd.

Plots are wayyy too random for that to work right now. Maybe in the future.

The plot system does have the potential to be awesome. The problem now is that the AI just spams assassins until it kills every character that's between it and the title it wants, regardless of opinion. It's tedious and predictable and you just need to figure out who's doing the killing and kill that guy first. In medieval times assassinations were rare and elaborate and I think the plot system could simulate that. If the target list included, lets say, independent rulers of the same religion and all rulers of the same realm with negative opinion, it would provide both enough targets and it would make the relationship system more useful.

What if you want to assassinate someone you're one good terms with?

 

[Trash]

In medieval times assassinations were rare and elaborate

Ahahahahahaaaahaa. Dude.

 

[curry]

What if you want to assassinate someone you're one good terms with?

You can reduce opinion by sending insults

 

[curry]

In medieval times assassinations were rare and elaborate

Ahahahahahaaaahaa. Dude.

The 10 examples given in that article are pretty much the only high-profile assassinations of the time and they all had huge consequences. In CK2 people get assassinated all the time and if you fail it's no big deal.

 

[Kayerts]

Patch looks really good, as far as I can tell. Apart from the already DISCUSS!'d things,

- Tribal Invasion CB: Now destroys all duchies and kingdoms in the conquered realm

Hordes should be a lot scarier now. They lose some internal structure, but they don't have to deal with some asshole King of Rus' starting a civil war immediately after he surrendered to them.

Women and illegitimate bastards no longer get pressed (inheritable) claims on their parents' titles

Aw. I liked my heir being able to fight a war for grandpa's throne.

- AI: Vassals should now try to defeat peasant rebels on their own

Vassals will no longer hate you for newly acquired Holdings that take you above the demesne limit. You have two months to get rid of them.

Much-needed. Accidentally tapping the space bar after conquering the HRE should not consign you to having every single vassal in the realm simultaneously revolt.

- Made the revolters in independence wars start gaining ticking war score, and do so immediately

Vaarna should be happy.

Embarked armies no longer suffer attrition

Playing Boat Traffic Controller during every single crusade wasn't really fun.

- Nerfed the Pagan warrior cult building by 33%

- Boosted the arrival strength of the Timurids

Much-needed. The Iron Khan had been the Toilet Paper Khan.

 

[Trash]

In medieval times assassinations were rare and elaborate

Ahahahahahaaaahaa. Dude.

The 10 examples given in that article are pretty much the only high-profile assassinations of the time and they all had huge consequences. In CK2 people get assassinated all the time and if you fail it's no big deal.

Read a little more on the period. Assassinations were an often used tool in the political arsenal and most were not much more than a few fellow nobles or vassals chopping up the victim when he least expected it.

 

[IDtenT]

What if you want to assassinate someone you're one good terms with?

You can reduce opinion by sending insults

That's a bit honourable for an assassination, don't you think?

 

[Malakal]

Assassinations were very common in the era, but they lacked in finesse. Mainly the club to the head kind of work.

However as long as plot system isnt really made for this they cant be plot only. I think it would be better if assassination plots were based on RELATIONS as a requirement, not on effect. History has many examples where people who should hate each other didnt because of their personal feelings. Maybe influence relations with effect-based modifiers (ie I can assassinate my wife if she is old and I dont have heirs even if my character kinda likes her). A lot of work to implement.

 

[IDtenT]

Women and illegitimate bastards no longer get pressed (inheritable) claims on their parents' titles

Aw. I liked my heir being able to fight a war for grandpa's throne.

What if I had Cognatic accession? Shouldn't my daughter's daughter/son be able to claim my throne? The same as my son's son?

 

[curry]

What if you want to assassinate someone you're one good terms with?

You can reduce opinion by sending insults

That's a bit honourable for an assassination, don't you think?

The opinion modifier isn't the "state of the relationship". It's the unilateral value of how much you value that other person, and the other person has his own value that's completely independent of your opinion of him. Even if you have +100 opinion of someone, meaning you love him, he can have -100 opinion of you, meaning he hates you. Having something like +50 opinion means you think someone is a great guy but having +100 means you love someone as much as it's humanly possible. Now, it would be simply oxymoron that you disregard how much you love someone when you make the decision to have him assassinated. If you send an assassin to kill someone, you obviously don't love him, right?

I think it would only make sense that your opinion of another ruler limits what type of action you can take against him, much like traits limit your choices in events.

Assassinations of the time period, especially when it involved noblemen, wasn't arbitrary. It required getting a permission and bribing people which can be simulated through having to invite influential people into the plot.

 

[IDtenT]

(ie I can assassinate my wife if she is old and I dont have heirs even if my character kinda likes her).

Curious. Is it possible to be completely infertile?

 

[curry]

(ie I can assassinate my wife if she is old and I dont have heirs even if my character kinda likes her).

Curious. Is it possible to be completely infertile?

Yes, fertility is an attribute that goes down with age. It's invisible in normal game but you can see it in debug mode.

 

[IDtenT]

(ie I can assassinate my wife if she is old and I dont have heirs even if my character kinda likes her).

Curious. Is it possible to be completely infertile?

Yes, fertility is an attribute that goes down with age. It's invisible in normal game but you can see it in debug mode.

Yeah, but I mean as a physical disability not linked with age or other attributes.

 

[curry]

(ie I can assassinate my wife if she is old and I dont have heirs even if my character kinda likes her).

Curious. Is it possible to be completely infertile?

Yes, fertility is an attribute that goes down with age. It's invisible in normal game but you can see it in debug mode.

Yeah, but I mean as a physical disability not linked with age or other attributes.

Can't seem to find the thread but there are traits with the effect Infertile