With the Sons of Abraham expansion for Crusader Kings II arriving next week, the medieval strategy sandbox will also receive the massive 2.0 patch. Heralding the arrival of what Paradox Development Studio calls "phase two" of the game's expansion and DLC cycle, 2.0 has one of the longest change lists of any patch the game has ever received. In addition to Steam achievements, workshop support, Ironman mode, and the replacement of the dismal metaserver-based multiplayer, the patch notes are also laden with the usual, hilarious-sounding fixes you only find in Crusader Kings.

The most entertaining pulls from the patch notes include:

Characters of a religion where priests are not allowed to marry will now divorce their wives if ordained
Fixed some bugs with how dead spouses are handled
Fixed a bug where dead popes would have the incorrect character portrait
Changes to the bastard children of Antso IV of Navarra
AI: Will no longer accept giving away women as concubines to characters whose religion they will not intermarry with
Modding: Added "evil_god_names" to religions, to be used in event texts
Modding: Added trigger 'any_spouse_even_if_dead'

Other highlights include a change to enemy war AI to put it more in line with Europa Universalis IV—AI armies will form "hunter-killer" stacks focused on winning battles rather than taking land, and will take army composition into account when engaging in battle (rather than just numbers). The CK2 to EU4 converter is also being updated to import the new Jewish religion and cultures, as well as unique ideas for Jerusalem, the Knights Templar, and the formable Kingdom of Israel.

You can read the full patch notes and a dev diary detailing the patch on the Paradox forums.

This week's podcast is all about Steam's three, big announcements. What do SteamOS, Steam Machines, and the Steam Controller mean to PC gaming? How does it all work? How much does it cost? Does Valve want to replace your main rig? Your living room entertainment center? All of the above? How would Nicholas Cage fare in the political landscape of the 15th Century?

Cory, Evan, and T.J. answer all of these questions to the best of their ability in PC Gamer Podcast 363 - Gabecube!

Have a question, comment, complaint, or observation? Send an MP3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com or call us toll-free at 877-404-1337 x724.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@ELahti (Evan Lahti)
@demiurge (Cory Banks)
@AsaTJ (T.J. Hafer)
@belsaas (Erik Belsaas, podcast producer)

Paradox Interactive has weighed in on the recent announcement of SteamOS, and with a very positive attitude. CEO Fredrik Wester called it a "great thing for PC gaming," and confirmed that the publisher fully intends to support it going forward. Titles like Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis IV, which already have working Linux versions, will run natively on the new OS.

"We have been developing for SteamOS for quite a while as it’s basically the same as the Linux version Steam runs," Johan Andersson, Studio Manager of Paradox Development Studio (one of Paradox's internal dev teams), confirmed. "CK2 & EU4 should run on it natively, as it runs on Linux on Steam, and all our future games will as well. We think SteamOS is great for gamers, as it will give far better performance on the same hardware than Windows does."

While the publishing side of Paradox hasn't committed to the same universal support at this point, Wester expressed that the roster of Paradox-published games that run on SteamOS will continue to grow.

"We are actively expanding the number of published games on SteamOS—and as Johan mentioned, is fully supporting SteamOS already," he said. "SteamOS is a great thing for PC gaming; competition means more choices which, in the end, should favor gamers."

A fun game is to scour through the patch notes for Paradox's strategies, hunting for things that sound funny out of context. A good time can be had by all. Unfortunately, I've not yet sat down to crack open Europa Universalis IV, so lack the necessary context to even parse this massive list of fixes. "Event 'Conservative Backlash' now requires idea divine_supremacy" might sound funny, but what does it mean?

To be safe we'd better stick to the headline features: new vassal options, new map modes, and an expanded peace interface. Also some key cardinal update: "Cardinals now have a far higher likelihood to die as they grow old," and "Cardinals not yet in the curia can now die." Take that, immortal clergymen!

Here are the new features:


Added new ideagroups for Anatolian Beyliks, Marathas, Taungu, Rajput States,Granada, Papal States, Daimyos, Serbia, Orissa, Punjab, Ragusa, German States, Ryukyu, Bengal States, Tibet, Dravidian States, Assam, Gujarati States, Tuscany, USA, Switzerland, Irish States, Songhai, Brittany, Malayan States, Arabian States, Italian States, Najd & Hedjaz
When you release a vassal you now get the option to swap to that country and play as it.
Added two buttons to the peace interface. 'Surrender' - clicking this will automatically construct a peace offer the AI would accept & 'Suggest Demands' that constructs a demanding peace offer the AI will accept.
Editboxes can now have use copy/paste/cut and accepts text from other applications. This is handy if you want to copy a steamid for example. Also implemented some basic text navigation-features like ctrl-skipping words, and marking text.
There is now support for windowed fullscreen, and you can now toggle between fullscreen, windowed, windowed fullscreen) in the video-settings.
Added in two new mapmodes, one to display coalitions, and one to display opinions.
Added in five new achievements: Grand Coalition - to get a coalition with 6 members in it. Trade Hegemon - be a western european and owning Aden, Hormoz & Malacca. Winged Hussars - Have the Winged Hussar unit, while having at least 50% cavalry power. Luck of the Irish - Conquer all the british isles as an irish country. Sunset Invasion - Start as the Aztecs and conquer Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London, Amsterdam & Rome.


The rest is a giant list of tweaks and fixes to balance, AI, interface, multiplayer, performance, modding, events, and - let's be honest - basically everything. Check out the full changelist at the Paradox Forum page.

This week, Evan, Tyler, T.J., and Cory recap news from Gamescom: Diablo, XCOM, Elder Scrolls, and more. We compare notes on our current adventures in Saints Row IV, and T.J. vastly exceeds the legal limit for Bohemian Rhapsody lyric puns in a single podcast.

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? The answer is none of the above—it's PC Gamer Podcast 361 - Samurai Kangaroo Cavalry!

Have a question, comment, complaint, or observation? Send an MP3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com or call us toll-free at 877-404-1337 x724.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@ELahti (Evan Lahti)
@tyler_wilde (Tyler Wilde)
@demiurge (Cory Banks)
@AsaTJ (T.J. Hafer)
@belsaas (Erik Belsaas, podcast producer)