Crusader Kings II

**xploring** · 04-27-2013, 04:22

Any time you capture a fortress as any religion, you will now be able to take prisoners from the court there, such as the ruling lord’s family.

This one sounds exciting and scary at the same time. I wonder if there is a choice of prisoners or is it random? Does this mean if any stack even moves towards my capital, I will have to rush back to save my heir/spouse?

I wish there are more interactions between characters though. Gaining traits seems a bit random at the moment, more cause-effect relationship for actions and traits would be nice.

**Monk** · 04-27-2013, 04:55

Originally Posted by xploring

This one sounds exciting and scary at the same time. I wonder if there is a choice of prisoners or is it random? Does this mean if any stack even moves towards my capital, I will have to rush back to save my heir/spouse?

I wish there are more interactions between characters though. Gaining traits seems a bit random at the moment, more cause-effect relationship for actions and traits would be nice.

There's already a few really fun mods like this, one of which I played around with for a while. It's called Dungeons and Sieges and it really amps up the stakes when it comes to capturing castles. The game is smart enough to know exactly where characters are, if they are leading armies they should be safe from these events provided they are scoped correctly... however, if they aren't leading troops? That would be fair game for capturing...

This change will make playing female rulers extremely dangerous as in vanilla they cannot lead troops and are always in their demesne provinces, unlike men who can be toggled to a command somewhere to keep them 'safe.'

**Chaotix** · 04-27-2013, 18:57

Originally Posted by Monk

There's already a few really fun mods like this, one of which I played around with for a while. It's called Dungeons and Sieges and it really amps up the stakes when it comes to capturing castles. The game is smart enough to know exactly where characters are, if they are leading armies they should be safe from these events provided they are scoped correctly... however, if they aren't leading troops? That would be fair game for capturing...

This change will make playing female rulers extremely dangerous as in vanilla they cannot lead troops and are always in their demesne provinces, unlike men who can be toggled to a command somewhere to keep them 'safe.'

Indeed. If your desmesne is on the front line or you're fighting a particularly powerful enemy, the best possible choice might actually be to have your family members leading troops rather than vice-versa. Should be a real game-changer, and it'll definitely make Martial more important for rulers, even of larger countries.

**xploring** · 05-02-2013, 04:47

PC Gamer interviews Doomdark re Old Gods

No major revelation but some interesting tidbits

**xploring** · 05-03-2013, 06:42

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods - Dev Diary 4 - The Pagan Reformation

To begin with, religious Moral Authority has been revamped. The base value is now determined by the number of Holy Sites under the control of the religion. On top of this, there are various timed modifiers (think character opinions) for things like winning or losing holy wars, or building temples. This new system applies to all religions, not just the pagans. The pagan religions do tend to start with fewer Holy Sites under their control, but on the other hand there are no pagan heresies to worry about.

Now, as mentioned in previous dev diaries, pagans enjoy a number of advantages, but they also suffer from some frustrating limitations. Foremost, perhaps, is that they are stuck with Gavelkind. Pagan vassals are also a lot more suspicious of new rulers on succession (harsher "short reign" opinions), they cannot demand conversion of vassals, and they are easily impressed by the cunning missionaries of the Abrahamic religions. To avoid these problems, pagans can of course simply give up the old ways and convert, but there is another option; pagan religions can be reformed in imitation of those clever monotheists. With a proper church hierarchy, a holy book, and standardized rituals, the pagan religions can become more competitive.

Reforming the faith is not easy; you need to control three of the holy sites and have a lot of Piety to boot. After reforming, your faith will be given a religious head. In the case of Norse Pagans, the character who conducted the reformation will become the Fylkir, serving as both secular ruler and religious leader in much the same way as an Islamic Caliph. You may now declare holy wars, both great pagan Crusades and regular religious wars against infidels. Other pagan religions get a vassal religious head, like the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

There are tradeoffs to reforming the faith, however. You will lose the Subjugation casus belli and the defensive home attrition, and the unreformed version of your religion will become a heresy (which can cause problems for you.) As a pagan, you will normally want to grow quickly using your invasion and subjugation CBs, and then try to either reform your religion or convert in order to consolidate and stabilize your realm...

That's all for now. Next week's topic is special pagan events and decisions!

**xploring** · 05-09-2013, 01:48

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods - Dev Diary 5 - Events, Decisions and Zoroastrians

The events and decisions sound interesting, though there doesn't seem to be many of them for some(most?) pagan faith except Norse...

The dev diary also explain Zoroastrian and its game mechanics in some detail.

**Monk** · 05-09-2013, 03:18

Oh wow. Zoroastians get a variant of the sayyid trait for descendants of the character (likely to be you) to reunite the Persian Empire and declare themselves Saoshyant... that is so cool.