Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

Paradox's newsletter confirmed CKII will be up for preorder on other sites including Steam.

Preordered at Gamersgate. Who can turn down free Mongol Faces?

Have they provided any info on whether there's a broader range of character portraits (or some version of facegen + genetics)? I got real sick of being unable to pick people out by appearance.

ChrisGwinn wrote:

Have they provided any info on whether there's a broader range of character portraits (or some version of facegen + genetics)? I got real sick of being unable to pick people out by appearance.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...

There ya go.

Excellent. Looks like it's at least a little better.

Yeah and you can fully expect mods to add in more faces and whatnot.

I was really hoping for facegen + a real genetics algorithm, but I'll take an incremental improvement.

The demo is out! You cannot save or use MP features. Beyond that, I am not sure if other features are disabled.

http://www.fileplanet.com/224596/220...

edit: It appears as though you are limited to starting in 1066 and there are only a few characters you may choose to play.

The game is gorgeous. And it has a really nice interface.

And I needed to get stuff done this weekend.

tboon wrote:

And I needed to get stuff done this weekend.

Too bad!

Oh man, the tutorial is sweet. Nice graphics, terrain, clear UI... Looking good so far.

Dammit! Only internet I have at the moment is my phone. I want this so badly!

Prozac wrote:

Dammit! Only internet I have at the moment is my phone. I want this so badly!

Oh yeah, trust me, you really do.

Edit: And I just broke my guideline to never pre-order a game. I am so predictable I don't why I even bother pretending to wait anymore.

Some cool new stuff besides the UI... You can play an emperor with subordinate kings, and counts can now oversee non-playable barons, making for a broader range of characters and giving the counts a new layer of complexity. You can build holdings in your counties - cities, bishoprics and castles at least, each of which can increase your income and troops and other advantages. Each holding produces a different mix of troops.

Armies now have wings - center, left and right - if they are large enough to sustain more than just the center. If a wing is fighting and wins against it's opposition, it can join in to help another wing in the ongoing battle. Very nice simple mechanism to reflect the tactics of the period.

In a war, when attacking a province that is remote from the rest of it's demesne, if you hold it for three years, your warscore starts to go up quickly. This lets you actually take over that annoying one province on your border that is owned by some lunatic in Damascus, who can't be bothered to come fight for it and yet whose other provinces you can't even reach to raise the warscore. Nice finesse - I bet we see this in the EU system as well, at some point.

So far, this looks like a gem. Going to play some of the demo now that I'm done with the tutorial. My first impression is that this might be the legendary "EU Lite", although there are a lot of character elements to think about. Not sure why I think that, but it's in the back of my mind that this might be less complex for new players than EU3.

While I have been very interested in this game for quite a while now, I have avoided information about it for the most part. I am absolutely floored by how complex the game is. It is leaps and bounds beyond the original.

Robear wrote:

So far, this looks like a gem. Going to play some of the demo now that I'm done with the tutorial. My first impression is that this might be the legendary "EU Lite", although there are a lot of character elements to think about. Not sure why I think that, but it's in the back of my mind that this might be less complex for new players than EU3.

I would not describe it as being EU Lite at all. Crusader Kings II possesses far more depth in areas that EU is very lacking in.

I think it's EU lite in the sense it strips out the complex economy for an economy of people. That makes it easier to understand on an intuitive level.

garion333 wrote:

I think it's EU lite in the sense it strips out the complex economy for an economy of people. That makes it easier to understand on an intuitive level.

Ah, perhaps so. I just don't want people to think of it as an inferior game.

I'm already looknig forward to the mod that lets you import your CK2 save into EU3 (or hopefully 4?)

Any tips for playing the demo? I tried playing as Poland, and am completely lost on what kind of goal I should take. Also its really weird that very small kingdoms can call on huge amounts of troops. The little kingdom above me with 3 provinces can summon triple my number of soldiers. And then my heir died. And then i raised the kings power, which caused two revolts. Pretty fun though, and way more intuitive then the first one.

I meant "Lite" as in "more accessible", Zane. There's more emphasis on the *story* you create, than on the tools you do it with, it seems to me.

Master0, take a look at your list of Duchies, then hit the "De Jure" button. That will show you ones that you have permanent claims to (ie, you can always declare war on them), so they are a good place to start. Also, get yourself married. Check your "allies" list and see if anyone needs sweetening. Check your neighbors for the same. Check your vassals to see if anyone hates you and needs some emollients (like maybe you need a Master of Swans).

It's build your own story, for the most part. If you are totally at a loss, pick a small neighbor and poke at them and see what happens.

The demo's been removed for some reason. Anyone know if its available elsewhere?

Dunno, the forums haven't taken note of it. Fileplanet must've released it early or something.

Yeah, something weird happened there. You can still get the demo on Fileplanet using this link.

Certis wrote:

Yeah, something weird happened there. You can still get the demo on Fileplanet using this link.

Thanks, that worked for me!

Important note for would-be conquerors - if you raise levies, you cannot then declare war after they are, oh, say, perched on the border sharpening their blade. Declare first, THEN raise levies.

Not that this has ever happened to me. No, sir.

Robear wrote:

I meant "Lite" as in "more accessible", Zane. There's more emphasis on the *story* you create, than on the tools you do it with, it seems to me.

Master0, take a look at your list of Duchies, then hit the "De Jure" button. That will show you ones that you have permanent claims to (ie, you can always declare war on them), so they are a good place to start. Also, get yourself married. Check your "allies" list and see if anyone needs sweetening. Check your neighbors for the same. Check your vassals to see if anyone hates you and needs some emollients (like maybe you need a Master of Swans).

It's build your own story, for the most part. If you are totally at a loss, pick a small neighbor and poke at them and see what happens.

Actually I did that whole De Jure thing. The problem is even though I own 4 or so provinces and have 10 vassals, the small kingdoms completely outmatch me troops wise. One of the places I could take is one province big and their army is the same size as the entirety of Poland. They seem to start with upgrade territory which gives them way more troops, while I start with nothing. Makes war incredible hard. Also sieges take freaking forever, but that normal to me in medieval Europe.

Did you raise all three types of levies? In my game, I *think* I was looking at slightly more troops than Stettin (to the north), but maybe I read it wrong.

If that's the case, then you are in for the long haul to develop your country.

Robear wrote:

Did you raise all three types of levies? In my game, I *think* I was looking at slightly more troops than Stettin (to the north), but maybe I read it wrong.

If that's the case, then you are in for the long haul to develop your country.

There are three types of levies? Your own, your vassals, and what's the third? The more I look into it the more I think its the problem with Poland itself. It's underdeveloped and surrounded by hostiles with massive armies. I tried a fresh start with Poland only to have all three of my neighbors declare war. Roughly putting me at 6000 vs 1500 against. Still you start out allied with the Germans and they help a lot. While your enemies are excommunicated. Maybe I will try one of the others instead.

There's a kind of levy that is normally attached to the county holdings - cities, bishoprics, etc. I get the feeling it's the "last ditch" one. It's icon is to the right of the Vassal levy one.

It's kind of normal for Paradox to put up a hard demo so your playtime in any given instance is somewhat limited.