Deadly New Expansion to Launch on August 25 with New Patch

Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer whose games have serious reaper-cussions, today announced the release date for The Reaper’s Due, the upcoming expansion for the medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings II. Featuring new disease and medicine mechanics and a whole host of deadly new challenges for players’ in-game nobles, The Reaper’s Due will be available on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs on August 25, 2016.

This expansion will return the Black Death to its rightful place in the center of medieval history, and add new systems that reward sound realm management and planning.

But, as with all expansions from Paradox, The Reaper’s Due will launch with a new content patch for Crusader Kings II, updating the game for all players, whether they purchase The Reaper’s Due or not.

Among the changes coming in the new patch will be:

• New custom rules options at start up for epidemics, invasions, legal changes and so on, so you get the Middle Ages that you want.
  
  
• New options to auto-save the game at different time intervals
  
  
• A new interface for better understanding the death and succession of rulers
  
  
• Adjustments to how alliances work, including AI attitudes to disloyal allies
  
  
• Major improvements to game optimization
  
  
• “Continue” button on game launcher to get you to your map even faster • New mod triggers to account for The Reaper’s Due content • Tons and tons of balance and gameplay tweaks, plus new events

The new patch will also be available with the release of The Reaper’s Due on August 25, 2016.

For more information about Crusader Kings II, visit http://www.crusaderkings.com/

Read the original post

Deadly New Expansion to Launch on August 25 with New Patch

Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer whose games have serious reaper-cussions, today announced the release date for The Reaper’s Due, the upcoming expansion for the medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings II. Featuring new disease and medicine mechanics and a whole host of deadly new challenges for players’ in-game nobles, The Reaper’s Due will be available on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs on August 25, 2016.

This expansion will return the Black Death to its rightful place in the center of medieval history, and add new systems that reward sound realm management and planning.

But, as with all expansions from Paradox, The Reaper’s Due will launch with a new content patch for Crusader Kings II, updating the game for all players, whether they purchase The Reaper’s Due or not.

Among the changes coming in the new patch will be:

• New custom rules options at start up for epidemics, invasions, legal changes and so on, so you get the Middle Ages that you want.
  
  
• New options to auto-save the game at different time intervals
  
  
• A new interface for better understanding the death and succession of rulers
  
  
• Adjustments to how alliances work, including AI attitudes to disloyal allies
  
  
• Major improvements to game optimization
  
  
• “Continue” button on game launcher to get you to your map even faster • New mod triggers to account for The Reaper’s Due content • Tons and tons of balance and gameplay tweaks, plus new events

The new patch will also be available with the release of The Reaper’s Due on August 25, 2016.

For more information about Crusader Kings II, visit http://www.crusaderkings.com/

Read the original post

Hello everyone! I’m Virvatuli, one of the Content Designers on The Reaper’s Due, which also happens to be my very first project here at Paradox. It’s been so much fun working on this DLC and I hope you’ll have even more fun playing it! In this week’s DD (another first for me), I will reveal one of Reaper’s most important features. Oh, okay, it might not be that important, but at least it’s my personal favourite and pet project. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you cats.

For the longest time, there’s been a issue regarding the representation of pets in Crusader Kings 2. In the realm of companion animals, there has been a worrisome lack of diversity. Most of you who play Way of Life have probably had a loyal hunting dog, there have been some events regarding birds of prey, and a lucky few Conclave players might have encountered a tiny rodent friend. Sadly, that has been pretty much it on the pet front. To rectify this serious problem we’ve added some additional furry and feathered friends in The Reaper’s Due. As we did, of course we couldn’t leave out the best animal of them all: our Feline Overlords, Befurred Ninjas, Gods of the Internet.

In the new DLC you can befriend a cat in a number of ways. However, as any Dwarf Fortress player or real-life cat lover knows, you do not adopt a cat. A cat adopts you. Once your feline friend has decided that you’re the one and only slave for it, you will receive a fancy “Pet Cat” character modifier (unless you scare it away, you horrible person). It will give your character +1 health, as the cat brings you so much happiness, and +1 intrigue, because we all know that cat owners are a bit more clever than everyone else (hey, it’s science!).



However, most things can become troublesome in excess, even your love for felines. In every cat owner’s life there comes a time when you ask yourself if you shouldn’t get just one more. At some point, the answer is probably no, at least if you don’t want to scare off all of your friends and repulse the courtiers.



Unless you want to become even sneakier, that is. Then go ahead and become a Crazy Cat Lady, or a Crazy Cat Lord, if that’s how you identify.

At first thought, one might think that cats would be a very insignificant aspect of a medieval ruler’s life, however, when the Plague comes around to visit this changes drastically. Most of you probably know that the Black Death was likely spread by fleas on rats. Sadly this fact is unknown to ye olde peasant, and when people start to die, some of them might point fingers to our furry protectors. Believe it or not, there are some people who do not like cats. It’s crazy, I know, but trust me on this. How will you deal with their growing fears? Do remember, if you don’t have cats, you’ll have plenty of rats…

​

This sneak peak of cats is all you’ll get for now. Don’t worry though, The Reaper’s Due is out on the 25th of August and then you can experience cats for yourself in all their whiskered glory. Next week Darkrenown will talk about more assorted features. Now I need to get back to scripting, there’re still some cat-related subjects which need further exploration… Adieu!

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Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Crusader Kings II Development Diary Archive

Hello everyone! I’m Virvatuli, one of the Content Designers on The Reaper’s Due, which also happens to be my very first project here at Paradox. It’s been so much fun working on this DLC and I hope you’ll have even more fun playing it! In this week’s DD (another first for me), I will reveal one of Reaper’s most important features. Oh, okay, it might not be that important, but at least it’s my personal favourite and pet project. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you cats.

For the longest time, there’s been a issue regarding the representation of pets in Crusader Kings 2. In the realm of companion animals, there has been a worrisome lack of diversity. Most of you who play Way of Life have probably had a loyal hunting dog, there have been some events regarding birds of prey, and a lucky few Conclave players might have encountered a tiny rodent friend. Sadly, that has been pretty much it on the pet front. To rectify this serious problem we’ve added some additional furry and feathered friends in The Reaper’s Due. As we did, of course we couldn’t leave out the best animal of them all: our Feline Overlords, Befurred Ninjas, Gods of the Internet.

In the new DLC you can befriend a cat in a number of ways. However, as any Dwarf Fortress player or real-life cat lover knows, you do not adopt a cat. A cat adopts you. Once your feline friend has decided that you’re the one and only slave for it, you will receive a fancy “Pet Cat” character modifier (unless you scare it away, you horrible person). It will give your character +1 health, as the cat brings you so much happiness, and +1 intrigue, because we all know that cat owners are a bit more clever than everyone else (hey, it’s science!).



However, most things can become troublesome in excess, even your love for felines. In every cat owner’s life there comes a time when you ask yourself if you shouldn’t get just one more. At some point, the answer is probably no, at least if you don’t want to scare off all of your friends and repulse the courtiers.



Unless you want to become even sneakier, that is. Then go ahead and become a Crazy Cat Lady, or a Crazy Cat Lord, if that’s how you identify.

At first thought, one might think that cats would be a very insignificant aspect of a medieval ruler’s life, however, when the Plague comes around to visit this changes drastically. Most of you probably know that the Black Death was likely spread by fleas on rats. Sadly this fact is unknown to ye olde peasant, and when people start to die, some of them might point fingers to our furry protectors. Believe it or not, there are some people who do not like cats. It’s crazy, I know, but trust me on this. How will you deal with their growing fears? Do remember, if you don’t have cats, you’ll have plenty of rats…

​

This sneak peak of cats is all you’ll get for now. Don’t worry though, The Reaper’s Due is out on the 25th of August and then you can experience cats for yourself in all their whiskered glory. Next week Darkrenown will talk about more assorted features. Now I need to get back to scripting, there’re still some cat-related subjects which need further exploration… Adieu!

Read the original post

Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Crusader Kings II Development Diary Archive

Hello and welcome back to another DD about <Secret DLC>! If all is going to plan you should be reading this while I am on my third, and sadly final, week of vacation, so I may or may not show up to answer questions. For this DD we are getting back to the core values of <Secret DLC>: Death and Suffering!

Being a prisoner is never a fun experience, and frankly, with <Secret DLC> it only gets worse. We have added several fairly unpleasant ways to interact with your captives:

• Humiliate. The prisoner is degraded in some fashion; such as being tarred and feathered, or forced to do a “walk of shame”. This also causes them to lose prestige and be generally looked down on.
  
• Torture. The prisoner is caused a certain amount of pain; such as being whipped, or stretched on the rack. May cause them to become Stressed or even Depressed, and can cause you to lose the Kind trait.
  
• Mutilate. Only available to rulers with certain traits, such as Cruel or Impaler, this causes the permanent loss of a body part. May lead to you becoming Cruel if you are not already, and can cause them to gain Stressed or even Lunatic.
  
• Bad poetry. Rulers with the Poet trait may deploy their very worst poems against a prisoner. While a comparatively mild punishment, it nonetheless has a slight chance to drive them mad.
  
• Consume. Rulers who are either Possessed or Lunatic and also have the Cannibal modifier may simply eat their prisoners. If you haven’t disabled fantasy content, this may lead to you “gaining the power” of your victim.

All of these options, besides Consume, release the victim afterwards as they are considered to be their punishment, and while you choose the category you do not choose the exact method. Needless to say, your former prisoner will not think kindly of you after any of these punishments, and in the more extreme cases their close family may also be outraged.

Of course, sometimes a mere punishment is not enough and you simply have to Execute your prisoner. Well, we have added content for this eventuality too! You still simply press the Execute button, as before, but the actual execution method employed is chosen from a list based on your location/culture/religion/traits as well as the imprison reason you have on your prisoner, their religion/gender/traits, and things. Different execution methods come with different death reasons, and as you may have heard in an earlier DD, different death sounds. We have 31 execution methods, including Hanging, Crushing, Sawing, and Bear. It’s all in an easily moddable file too, just in case modders think we have been insufficiently creative.



I should also mention that with the 2.6 patch it is no longer possible to escape from House arrest unless someone with the Intrigue focus breaks you out, so if for some reason you want to be nice to your prisoners they are no longer virtually guaranteed to escape.

Since Death is a big theme for <Secret DLC>, we have also added several reactions events to the death of your lovers, friends, and rivals. For the first two, these can result in things like you turning to drink, finding a new friend, taking comfort in the arms of another, or finding a keepsake of them. For the latter, you may miss having a rival and start a new feud, resolve to become a better person, or if you are a particular type of person you might sneak out and desecrate their corpse. We don’t judge!





That’s all for now. Next week I’ll be back at work and writing these “live” again, so I’ll decide the topic closer to the time. It's quite possible the subject will be cats though.


Read the original post

Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Crusader Kings II Development Diary Archive

Hello and welcome back to another DD about <Secret DLC>! If all is going to plan you should be reading this while I am on my third, and sadly final, week of vacation, so I may or may not show up to answer questions. For this DD we are getting back to the core values of <Secret DLC>: Death and Suffering!

Being a prisoner is never a fun experience, and frankly, with <Secret DLC> it only gets worse. We have added several fairly unpleasant ways to interact with your captives:

• Humiliate. The prisoner is degraded in some fashion; such as being tarred and feathered, or forced to do a “walk of shame”. This also causes them to lose prestige and be generally looked down on.
  
• Torture. The prisoner is caused a certain amount of pain; such as being whipped, or stretched on the rack. May cause them to become Stressed or even Depressed, and can cause you to lose the Kind trait.
  
• Mutilate. Only available to rulers with certain traits, such as Cruel or Impaler, this causes the permanent loss of a body part. May lead to you becoming Cruel if you are not already, and can cause them to gain Stressed or even Lunatic.
  
• Bad poetry. Rulers with the Poet trait may deploy their very worst poems against a prisoner. While a comparatively mild punishment, it nonetheless has a slight chance to drive them mad.
  
• Consume. Rulers who are either Possessed or Lunatic and also have the Cannibal modifier may simply eat their prisoners. If you haven’t disabled fantasy content, this may lead to you “gaining the power” of your victim.

All of these options, besides Consume, release the victim afterwards as they are considered to be their punishment, and while you choose the category you do not choose the exact method. Needless to say, your former prisoner will not think kindly of you after any of these punishments, and in the more extreme cases their close family may also be outraged.

Of course, sometimes a mere punishment is not enough and you simply have to Execute your prisoner. Well, we have added content for this eventuality too! You still simply press the Execute button, as before, but the actual execution method employed is chosen from a list based on your location/culture/religion/traits as well as the imprison reason you have on your prisoner, their religion/gender/traits, and things. Different execution methods come with different death reasons, and as you may have heard in an earlier DD, different death sounds. We have 31 execution methods, including Hanging, Crushing, Sawing, and Bear. It’s all in an easily moddable file too, just in case modders think we have been insufficiently creative.



I should also mention that with the 2.6 patch it is no longer possible to escape from House arrest unless someone with the Intrigue focus breaks you out, so if for some reason you want to be nice to your prisoners they are no longer virtually guaranteed to escape.

Since Death is a big theme for <Secret DLC>, we have also added several reactions events to the death of your lovers, friends, and rivals. For the first two, these can result in things like you turning to drink, finding a new friend, taking comfort in the arms of another, or finding a keepsake of them. For the latter, you may miss having a rival and start a new feud, resolve to become a better person, or if you are a particular type of person you might sneak out and desecrate their corpse. We don’t judge!





That’s all for now. Next week I’ll be back at work and writing these “live” again, so I’ll decide the topic closer to the time. It's quite possible the subject will be cats though.


Read the original post

Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Crusader Kings II Development Diary Archive

Hello and welcome back to another dev diary about <Secret DLC>! One day we will actually announce this DLC and I’ll be able to use the proper name, but that day is not today! Anyway, right now I am here to tell you about some extra stuff we have made for Pagans, which will be part of the free 2.6 patch (of course, you still need The Old Gods to play as a pagan), and our new Female Advisor events. So, uh, actually this DD is really about 2.6 content and not <Secret DLC>, really, but anyway, onwards!

First of all, Defensive Pagans now have the ability to summon bands of Devout Warriors if they are the primary defender against an enemy of a different religion at the cost of 200 piety. Overall this is rather like the Raise Tribal Army decision and gives Defensive Pagans some extra punch when attacked.

Next, Defensive Pagans also have a new decision which can be used while at peace, and not more often than every 10 years: Ancestor Worship. This allows you to ask your ancestors for help or advise with some part of your life, perhaps you want triumph on the battlefield, maybe you want your realm to Prosper, or perhaps you are just lonely? In any case, once you have decided what it is you want, you must decide what you will offer up to get your request heard, and can range from offering up your eye or a human sacrifice to a more modest feast or carving a simple idol. With the sacrifice made, hopefully you see some kind of result in the not so distant future. Although, skeptics might point out that there’s no evidence the ancestors actually did anything and you may simply be giving them credit for a happy coincidence, that isn’t the kind of thought a pious man ought to have.



here we wish for affection and offer up a feast

With Defensive Pagans covered, let’s move into their more Offensive cousins, the Norse. The first change here is relatively simple, and some of you guessed it from the Trait icons I showed in an earlier DD, but there are now two improved versions of the Viking trait: Ravager and Sea King. These are gained from continuing to sack holdings while raiding after the Viking trait has been gained and come with larger bonuses.



A couple of minor yet neat changes:

• The Norse may now also gain a trait similar to Crusader when taking part in Great Holy Wars, called Valhalla-bound.
  
• Norse Culture will no longer split into into Swedish/Danish etc when it’s part of a powerful Norse realm (which I seem to remember was said to be the case long ago but doesn’t seem to have been implemented) where the ruler either has 2 kingdom tiles or an empire title, or if the faith has been reformed and the Fylkir is Norse. On a related note, Pictish, Old Saxon, and Visigothic cultures will also no longer split/change when part of a powerful realm or their head of religion is of their culture.

Finally, Norse religion rulers now have a decision to appoint female characters in their realm with good Martial skill and appropriate traits as Shieldmaidens. These warrior women can act as bodyguards and/or can be set as commanders for your armies regardless of your gender laws. Shieldmaidens have a number of events relating to both their actions in battle and their training for said battles, and if a player happens to end up as a landed lady they can experience the Shieldmaiden content from the other side.



Now leaving Pagans behind, but staying with cool women, we’ve added a couple of ways to get more female advisors. Firstly, close relatives of a ruler with high stats may ask to be given a job. Secondly, a talented woman may show up in your court and offer her services to you. In either case if you accept they will take up a council position, but you will get an opinion penalty with your vassals - if you have Conclave the size of the penalty is reduced if you have increased your Gender Equality laws. These events do not fire if your gamerules/gender laws/religion/culture allow women to be appointed normally, since in that case you could simply hire them if you want to.



That’s all for this week, next week Doomdark will talk about the future of CK2 beyond <Secret DLC>.

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Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Crusader Kings II Development Diary Archive