Crusader Kings II - TheLetterZ
Hello and welcome back to another CK2 Development Diary. The 2.6.2 update looms rather near now, and if everything goes to plan it should be released on Thursday. I’ll start out with the bad news; due to some unforeseen problems one of the game rules I mentioned last week will not be included with this patch: The Multiplayer Assassination rule. However, we do have two other game rules for you which you may find interesting:

  1. De jure Requirement: Default/Required. On default, nothing changes, but with “Required” characters who hold titles which have de jure land will eventually lose the title if they don’t hold any of the de jure land.
  2. Horse Lords:Nomad Stability: Unstable/Stable. Now when a Khagan dies, his vassals have the possibility to break away and form their own realms -with the new Khagan getting a CB on them. Setting “Stable” keeps the old behaviour.

There was some outcry last week because Jews and Zoroastrians didn’t also get a crusader style trait, so I’ve managed to sneak both in with the Shaddai and Gond-i Shahanshah traits. While we were in a trait-adding mood, both Cannibal and Lover’s Pox were changed from character modifiers to traits (although we have left the old modifier checks in place so ongoing games aren’t broken).


The Gender Equality gamerule and laws revealed a few problems with Muslim events always assuming Muslim rulers would be male, so we’re spend a bit of time adding the appropriate checks which should result in a more flavourful Muslim experience.

As well as this, there are plenty of small fixes and additions to many other things, but I’ll let you explore the game and/or the patchnotes to discover them for yourselves.


Full patch notes in original thread
(These are works in progress, when the patch is released we’ll post a final version)

And, last of all, from next week onwards we’ll be posting CK2 DDs on Mondays instead of Tuesdays.
Crusader Kings II - TheLetterZ
Hello and welcome back to another CK2 Development Diary. The 2.6.2 update looms rather near now, and if everything goes to plan it should be released on Thursday. I’ll start out with the bad news; due to some unforeseen problems one of the game rules I mentioned last week will not be included with this patch: The Multiplayer Assassination rule. However, we do have two other game rules for you which you may find interesting:

  1. De jure Requirement: Default/Required. On default, nothing changes, but with “Required” characters who hold titles which have de jure land will eventually lose the title if they don’t hold any of the de jure land.
  2. Horse Lords:Nomad Stability: Unstable/Stable. Now when a Khagan dies, his vassals have the possibility to break away and form their own realms -with the new Khagan getting a CB on them. Setting “Stable” keeps the old behaviour.

There was some outcry last week because Jews and Zoroastrians didn’t also get a crusader style trait, so I’ve managed to sneak both in with the Shaddai and Gond-i Shahanshah traits. While we were in a trait-adding mood, both Cannibal and Lover’s Pox were changed from character modifiers to traits (although we have left the old modifier checks in place so ongoing games aren’t broken).


The Gender Equality gamerule and laws revealed a few problems with Muslim events always assuming Muslim rulers would be male, so we’re spend a bit of time adding the appropriate checks which should result in a more flavourful Muslim experience.

As well as this, there are plenty of small fixes and additions to many other things, but I’ll let you explore the game and/or the patchnotes to discover them for yourselves.


Full patch notes in original thread
(These are works in progress, when the patch is released we’ll post a final version)

And, last of all, from next week onwards we’ll be posting CK2 DDs on Mondays instead of Tuesdays.
Europa Universalis IV - BjornB


Good afternoon everyone. Thursday rolls around so once more we have some features from the upcoming Rights of Man to share with you. We've already shown off a huge number of changes coming with both the free 1.18 Prussia Patch and Rights of Man but we're still not done yet! Let's check out a couple more new additions.

Bodycount
When concluding a war, it's hard to get a sense of scale for just how many enemies fell to your blades, starved to death in your rolling tundra or were sent to the bottom of the ocean. Personally, I would like to know these figures so I can triumphantly explain to my nation why it was worth exhausting our manpower pool over the Border Friction at Jemtland to inflict massive casualties on our foes.

At the conclusion of a war you will be presented with a Bodycount screen showing losses for both sides and a breakdown of what was lost, how they perished and their unit model, just so you can look them dead in the eyes.



Additionally, you can select the shields for each nation involved in the war to see their individual burden that they shouldered, so you can see who did and did not pull their weight in a war. Very useful for those times where your ally in a war claims that they were fighting all the battles, you just weren't watching at the time. Clicking on the Defender or Attacker icons will show the losses for everyone on that side.



As with most pop-ups, you can toggle the display of this one to your liking. You can also observe game-long statistics about this in the ledger, where we have added pages for army and navy losses for all nations. Enjoy some numbers from last night's hands-off and try not to be scared of Russia, France and Ottomans.



Another minor change we has as part of Rights of Man is an indicator on the Minimap for friendly and hostile forces.



At times, panning around to keep an eye on all parts of your sprawling empire to see if your enemies are invading can be time better spent elsewhere. Now, as long as a nation's units are not covered by Fog of War, they will appear on the Minimap, either Green or Blue for friendlies, or red for hostile. Again, this feature can be toggled on and off.

These are two paid features in the upcoming Rights of Man expansion which will be released alongside the Free 1.18 Prussia Patch. Rights of Man will cost $20 or your local equivalent and be released on the 11th October. Our team is hard at work [S]plotting against each other for the ongoing multiplayer[/s] finalizing the expansion but we still have a few more things to show, and will be back again next week to maybe, just maybe, explain what Necromunda was all about.

If you hunger for more, perhaps the Rights of Man Developer Multiplayer will take your fancy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BSsR-P48Rw

Read the original post


Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Europa Universalis IV Development Diary Archive
Europa Universalis IV - BjornB


Good afternoon everyone. Thursday rolls around so once more we have some features from the upcoming Rights of Man to share with you. We've already shown off a huge number of changes coming with both the free 1.18 Prussia Patch and Rights of Man but we're still not done yet! Let's check out a couple more new additions.

Bodycount
When concluding a war, it's hard to get a sense of scale for just how many enemies fell to your blades, starved to death in your rolling tundra or were sent to the bottom of the ocean. Personally, I would like to know these figures so I can triumphantly explain to my nation why it was worth exhausting our manpower pool over the Border Friction at Jemtland to inflict massive casualties on our foes.

At the conclusion of a war you will be presented with a Bodycount screen showing losses for both sides and a breakdown of what was lost, how they perished and their unit model, just so you can look them dead in the eyes.



Additionally, you can select the shields for each nation involved in the war to see their individual burden that they shouldered, so you can see who did and did not pull their weight in a war. Very useful for those times where your ally in a war claims that they were fighting all the battles, you just weren't watching at the time. Clicking on the Defender or Attacker icons will show the losses for everyone on that side.



As with most pop-ups, you can toggle the display of this one to your liking. You can also observe game-long statistics about this in the ledger, where we have added pages for army and navy losses for all nations. Enjoy some numbers from last night's hands-off and try not to be scared of Russia, France and Ottomans.



Another minor change we has as part of Rights of Man is an indicator on the Minimap for friendly and hostile forces.



At times, panning around to keep an eye on all parts of your sprawling empire to see if your enemies are invading can be time better spent elsewhere. Now, as long as a nation's units are not covered by Fog of War, they will appear on the Minimap, either Green or Blue for friendlies, or red for hostile. Again, this feature can be toggled on and off.

These are two paid features in the upcoming Rights of Man expansion which will be released alongside the Free 1.18 Prussia Patch. Rights of Man will cost $20 or your local equivalent and be released on the 11th October. Our team is hard at work [S]plotting against each other for the ongoing multiplayer[/s] finalizing the expansion but we still have a few more things to show, and will be back again next week to maybe, just maybe, explain what Necromunda was all about.

If you hunger for more, perhaps the Rights of Man Developer Multiplayer will take your fancy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BSsR-P48Rw

Read the original post


Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Europa Universalis IV Development Diary Archive
Crusader Kings II - BjornB


Hello all, it’s time for a CK2 DD once again. Now before I get into the meat of this one, I want to let you know that DDs between DLCs are going to be shorter than the big feature-explainers I could write during Reaper’s, so don’t be surprised if some are brief.

Moving on, work on 2.6.2 continues well, and I’ll post the patch notes when it’s closer to being done, but some fixes that may interest people include:
  • AI Characters are much less likely to take Experimental treatments for minor illnesses, which means you should see less maimed or insane character about in the world.
  • Patricians can now properly Go into Seclusion and Search for Court Physicians.
  • Characters under 16 no longer get gout.

We have added more Game Rules:
  • Supernatural events can be set to Unrestricted, allowing the AI to have fun with them too.
  • Both Mongol and Aztec invasions can be set to “Delayed Random” where they will show up at random but not before the year 1000 and not before the game has been played for 50 years.
  • Turkic Conquerors can be set to Historical/Random/Off.
  • Way of Life users can set Dueling to Normal/RestrictedUnrestricted.
  • Both Vassal and Demesne limits can be set to Normal/Unlimited/50%/25%
  • Grant Independence can be set to Normal/Unrestricted.
  • Assassinate plots in MP can be set to Normal/No Players/No Players + Heirs/No Player Dynasty.

We have also continued to add more Content, including:

The various Defensive Pagan faiths now allow you to pick a Patron Deity granting a bonus to certain stats, and allowing access to certain new events:





Plus, all Pagan religion now have their own Valhalla-bound equivalent:



Characters in Seclusion may find they have an uninvited guest:



Immortal characters are now a lot more likely to wake up from Incapacitating head wounds, and there is no longer an age limit on said event for Immortals.
Even non-depressed Immortals who find that life Eternal isn’t all that great may now attempt to end their life.
Not only that, it’s also possible that Immortal characters may find they are not the only people to have found Eternal life, and that their brethren are not the most welcoming types:


say one thing for Rurik Rurikid, say he's lucky
And that's it for now, see you next week!

Read the original post


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


Hello all, it’s time for a CK2 DD once again. Now before I get into the meat of this one, I want to let you know that DDs between DLCs are going to be shorter than the big feature-explainers I could write during Reaper’s, so don’t be surprised if some are brief.

Moving on, work on 2.6.2 continues well, and I’ll post the patch notes when it’s closer to being done, but some fixes that may interest people include:
  • AI Characters are much less likely to take Experimental treatments for minor illnesses, which means you should see less maimed or insane character about in the world.
  • Patricians can now properly Go into Seclusion and Search for Court Physicians.
  • Characters under 16 no longer get gout.

We have added more Game Rules:
  • Supernatural events can be set to Unrestricted, allowing the AI to have fun with them too.
  • Both Mongol and Aztec invasions can be set to “Delayed Random” where they will show up at random but not before the year 1000 and not before the game has been played for 50 years.
  • Turkic Conquerors can be set to Historical/Random/Off.
  • Way of Life users can set Dueling to Normal/RestrictedUnrestricted.
  • Both Vassal and Demesne limits can be set to Normal/Unlimited/50%/25%
  • Grant Independence can be set to Normal/Unrestricted.
  • Assassinate plots in MP can be set to Normal/No Players/No Players + Heirs/No Player Dynasty.

We have also continued to add more Content, including:

The various Defensive Pagan faiths now allow you to pick a Patron Deity granting a bonus to certain stats, and allowing access to certain new events:





Plus, all Pagan religion now have their own Valhalla-bound equivalent:



Characters in Seclusion may find they have an uninvited guest:



Immortal characters are now a lot more likely to wake up from Incapacitating head wounds, and there is no longer an age limit on said event for Immortals.
Even non-depressed Immortals who find that life Eternal isn’t all that great may now attempt to end their life.
Not only that, it’s also possible that Immortal characters may find they are not the only people to have found Eternal life, and that their brethren are not the most welcoming types:


say one thing for Rurik Rurikid, say he's lucky
And that's it for now, see you next week!

Read the original post


Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Crusader Kings II Development Diary Archive
Crusader Kings II - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Adam Smith)

When you start a new game of Dwarf Fortress, a world is generated. Not just a map, but a world, with its own legends, characters, factions and historical wars. It’s one of my favourite openings to any game and gets me far more hyped than any fancy cinematic intro.

Wouldn’t it be great if Crusader Kings II [official site] could do something similar, rather than sticking to actual historical beginnings? Thanks to a modder who goes by the name Yemmlie, it can. The CK2 Generator can create alternate histories, simulating the appearance and development of cultures, religions, languages, characters and all the rest. It defaults to the vanilla map but if you want a random world to play on as well, that’s supported.

… [visit site to read more]

Europa Universalis IV - BjornB


Good afternoon all. It's Thursday meaning that we are due a development diary for the upcoming EU4 expansion: Rights of Man.


Last week we gorged on five new features: Disinherit, Strengthen Government, Prussian Monarchy, Debase Currency and Abandon Personal Union. Today we'll be taking a light snack with just one, which is in no way related to me being busy with moving home at the moment.

Late game you could well have fought against or even played as a Revolutionary Republic. In the 1792 Start date you can enjoy spreading the revolution as France but mechanically any European nation can get into the mood for it. As part of the Rights of Man expansion, these Revolutionary Republics will have access to their own Revolutionary Republican Factions system, akin to Ming or Merchant Republics.



Three factions will wrestle for influence in your nation, which you can boost using ADM, DIP and MIL points.

Jacobins cost ADM to boost and gain influence from Republican Tradition being high. When they are the leading faction they have the following effects:

Global Unrest -2
Build Cost -15%
National Tax +15%
Diplomatic Reputation -2


Royalists cost DIP to boost. If their influence is high and republican tradition is below 40 then they can seize control to turn your nation into a Revolutionary Empire.

Diplomatic Reputation +1
State Maintenance Cost -25%
Subject Liberty Desire -20
Republican Tradition -0.5 per year


Girondists cost MIL to boost. They want to bring the revolution to other nations. They gain influence from being at war and lost it from being at peace.

Land Forcelimit +20%
Manpower Recovery +20%
Discipline +5%
Aggressive Expansion Impact +20%

So essentially you have your stabilizing faction, your empire building faction and your warring faction. Balance their effects and bonuses to either spread the empire far and wide or consolidate your holdings. If you allow yourself to "stabilize" into a revolutionary Empire, you will leave the faction system and return to a monarchy, albeit the best* monarchy in the game.

As is often the case, there are new events to coincide with them, usually affecting the influence of your factions.



Revolutionary Republic Factions will be a paid feature in the upcoming Rights of Man expansion, which will be released alongside the 1.18 Prussia Patch on 11th October 2016.

If you thirst for more (and why wouldn't you?) perhaps I can interest you in checking out the feature stream for Rights of Man with myself and Johan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhi_xQchvpY

*Not counting Hordes, of course.

Read the original post


Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Europa Universalis IV Development Diary Archive
Europa Universalis IV - BjornB


Good afternoon all. It's Thursday meaning that we are due a development diary for the upcoming EU4 expansion: Rights of Man.


Last week we gorged on five new features: Disinherit, Strengthen Government, Prussian Monarchy, Debase Currency and Abandon Personal Union. Today we'll be taking a light snack with just one, which is in no way related to me being busy with moving home at the moment.

Late game you could well have fought against or even played as a Revolutionary Republic. In the 1792 Start date you can enjoy spreading the revolution as France but mechanically any European nation can get into the mood for it. As part of the Rights of Man expansion, these Revolutionary Republics will have access to their own Revolutionary Republican Factions system, akin to Ming or Merchant Republics.



Three factions will wrestle for influence in your nation, which you can boost using ADM, DIP and MIL points.

Jacobins cost ADM to boost and gain influence from Republican Tradition being high. When they are the leading faction they have the following effects:

Global Unrest -2
Build Cost -15%
National Tax +15%
Diplomatic Reputation -2


Royalists cost DIP to boost. If their influence is high and republican tradition is below 40 then they can seize control to turn your nation into a Revolutionary Empire.

Diplomatic Reputation +1
State Maintenance Cost -25%
Subject Liberty Desire -20
Republican Tradition -0.5 per year


Girondists cost MIL to boost. They want to bring the revolution to other nations. They gain influence from being at war and lost it from being at peace.

Land Forcelimit +20%
Manpower Recovery +20%
Discipline +5%
Aggressive Expansion Impact +20%

So essentially you have your stabilizing faction, your empire building faction and your warring faction. Balance their effects and bonuses to either spread the empire far and wide or consolidate your holdings. If you allow yourself to "stabilize" into a revolutionary Empire, you will leave the faction system and return to a monarchy, albeit the best* monarchy in the game.

As is often the case, there are new events to coincide with them, usually affecting the influence of your factions.



Revolutionary Republic Factions will be a paid feature in the upcoming Rights of Man expansion, which will be released alongside the 1.18 Prussia Patch on 11th October 2016.

If you thirst for more (and why wouldn't you?) perhaps I can interest you in checking out the feature stream for Rights of Man with myself and Johan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhi_xQchvpY

*Not counting Hordes, of course.

Read the original post


Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Europa Universalis IV Development Diary Archive
Crusader Kings II - BjornB
Hello all, it’s time for another CK2 development diary. We’re still working on making 2.6.2, and while of course there’s some bugfixing going on, for the most part we’re just adding bonus content. Which is fun!

We are working in a strict priority order, so naturally the first thing to be added was more pet events:


With the vital stuff out of the way, we moved on to more of The Reaper’s Due’s core focus, mortality and death:


We’ve also added some new game rules, such as making regular illnesses less common if desired, keeping prisoners in jail after torture, or disabling titles being named after dynasties or changing due to the culture of the holder.

There’s not much else to show at the moment, but there’ll be more next week. For something else to talk about now, I can reveal some of the new statistics data we’ve been getting about RD and the gamerules.

Of the 50,000 players in the last 24 hours:
90-95% of RD players are using the new Death sounds and have ingame sound on.
96% of players allow the AI to use the Intrigue focus.
92.6% of players allow the AI to use the Seduction focus.
93% of players have kept assassination plot only.
84% of players have Defensive pacts on.
76.3% of players have Shattered Retreat on.

Right now I can only see the numbers for default settings or not, but that will change as our stats people make newer and fancier graphs, and these seem like the most interesting stats for now. Next week, more new 2.6.2 content news!
...