Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

Prozac wrote:

I really wish that you could search characters by traits. The number of times I've had to scroll endlessly through lists trying to find future brides for newly born kinsmen that meet my Eugenics criteria.

You can sort by trait, which isn't quite as useful as searching, but I've still found it to be pretty helpful.

absurddoctor wrote:
Prozac wrote:

I really wish that you could search characters by traits. The number of times I've had to scroll endlessly through lists trying to find future brides for newly born kinsmen that meet my Eugenics criteria.

You can sort by trait, which isn't quite as useful as searching, but I've still found it to be pretty helpful.

I think he means traits such as "Genius", "Lustful", etc Not the attribute scores. And I agree, it would be nice to be able to search for a specific trait, but if theres a way to do so, I haven't found it yet.

Searching by score helps a little bit compared to just normal searching, because the positive traits (I'm thinking particularly of Genius and Quick, here) make everything a little higher, and those boost the average people up to 17-20 levels.

Does anyone ever groan when they see someone who is perfect in all ways for marriage, other than being, say... depressed, schizophrenic and stressed? I found a Greek Doux with his excellently statted daughter as his only heir, but with those negative traits, she's probably gonna die before he does! Not to mention that the various fertility penalties make creating an heir problematic at best.

New Dev Diaries for upcoming 1.05 patch: First Second

The changes to the crusades seem to be moving in the right direction for making crusades more germane. I have not been on one yet and don't plan to unless they are really close to my realms.

The "dynamic kingdoms" seems like a cool idea but I want to see for myself how it works.

Does anyone know what governs how quickly your levies regenerate back to full? I know you can set your marshal to "train troops" in a county to increase the levy regeneration, but the tooltips don't really give you much in the way of hard numbers.

Edit: Also, I keep getting "Vassal Inheritance Warnings" saying that the heir to a bishopric in my demesne isn't part of my realm. What does that mean / is this something I should be worried about / what can I do about it if so?

Who is best equipped to educate your children? How can I pick when the theory of evolution hasn't even been invented yet?

Right now I just pick the one with highest learning skill, or whoever I need an approval boost from.

It seems (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that mentors can pass stats and traits along to their wards. So, for example, if you want your heir to have a high Stewardship stat, it's best to choose a mentor who is strong in that stat.

Yeah, that's correct. And don't forget that you can raise them yourself as well, which gives you some control over what kind of traits your kid gets.

Someone on the conference call mentioned that there were some good youtube overview videos for CK2. Can someone point me towards a favorite?

hbi2k wrote:

Does anyone know what governs how quickly your levies regenerate back to full? I know you can set your marshal to "train troops" in a county to increase the levy regeneration, but the tooltips don't really give you much in the way of hard numbers.

I think it's a combination of buildings in the province + tech level. Some buildings increase levy regeneration rate, cannot remember which exactly, maybe training grounds and it's succesors? One of the combat techs also helps regeneration rate increase, I believe, but again I cannot remember which exact one.

hbi2k wrote:

Edit: Also, I keep getting "Vassal Inheritance Warnings" saying that the heir to a bishopric in my demesne isn't part of my realm. What does that mean / is this something I should be worried about / what can I do about it if so?

This means that the heir is part of a family with holdings in someone else's realm; this means that when the current holder dies, the heir will not be beholden to you but the other guy. Should you worry about it? Probably; depends on the province. What can you do about it? Stab, stab, stab usually works You can also revoke title and replace with someone you control. Or wait until the current holder dies and declare war. If you have free investiture, you can change the heir, since it is a bishopric.

High Crown authority prevents titles leaving the realm.

I often let such nobles get mad and revolt, then revoke the title while they are jailed. I can give it to a related noble in my court as a promotion, strengthening the family and pushing problem types to the side.

Robear wrote:

I often let such nobles get mad and revolt, then revoke the title while they are jailed. I can give it to a related noble in my court as a promotion, strengthening the family and pushing problem types to the side. :-)

This works where the county's main holding is a bisophric, but I think in most cases that won't be true, and you can't get the very low-level guy to revolt against you. What has happened to me far more often, is a bisophric within a county has an heir outside of your holdings. I think this most often occurs if you have Papal Investiture set; moving to Free Investiture might help.

tboon wrote:

The changes to the crusades seem to be moving in the right direction for making crusades more germane. I have not been on one yet and don't plan to unless they are really close to my realms.

I've crusaded in just one of three games, after I thought I'd made Portugal a real power. I shipped my armies off to Ascalon where they were just about annihilated by a massive infidel army -- but -- characters who lead troops get the "Crusader" trait, which is a +2 military bonus. Also, there's a massive relationship bonus to people who have crusaded together, I think it's +30. Considering that my King and several dukes/counts/mayors went along for the trip, it turned out to be a nice silver lining to being roundly beaten in battle and embarrassing the Pope by going home.

I'm sure that +30 represents a lot of war stories in great-halls, and showing off who has the best scars and wounds, but it would be interesting to see if that bonus is higher for zealots. I haven't looked.

dejanzie wrote:

Who is best equipped to educate your children? How can I pick when the theory of evolution hasn't even been invented yet?

Right now I just pick the one with highest learning skill, or whoever I need an approval boost from.

One of the things I have noticed is that, barring some odd things (notably if the ward changes guardians a lot or if the ward is transferred in the last couple years, say 13-16), the guardian when the kid becomes an adult will pass his 'occupation' onto the kid. That is, if your heir is being tutored by a Grey Eminence when they come of age, they will also become a Grey Eminence. Useful if you want to get good 'occupation' traits into your family.

Other than that, wards are more likely to get their tutors traits than others, and if they are of differing cultures or religions then the ward can switch. This can have disastrous consequences if you are say, French, with mostly French holdings, and your heir becomes Flemish. (The relations hit, plus the short reign modifier, start to add up quickly...)

The_Vinnlander wrote:
tboon wrote:

The changes to the crusades seem to be moving in the right direction for making crusades more germane. I have not been on one yet and don't plan to unless they are really close to my realms.

I've crusaded in just one of three games, after I thought I'd made Portugal a real power. I shipped my armies off to Ascalon where they were just about annihilated by a massive infidel army -- but -- characters who lead troops get the "Crusader" trait, which is a +2 military bonus. Also, there's a massive relationship bonus to people who have crusaded together, I think it's +30. Considering that my King and several dukes/counts/mayors went along for the trip, it turned out to be a nice silver lining to being roundly beaten in battle and embarrassing the Pope by going home.

I'm sure that +30 represents a lot of war stories in great-halls, and showing off who has the best scars and wounds, but it would be interesting to see if that bonus is higher for zealots. I haven't looked.

I gamed the crusader system a little in my Irish game. Each detachment leader gets the traits when you reach the target of the crusade. If it is a coastal province and you have laws high enough to change military commanfers you can have one army land in hte province, wait a few days, the 3 leaders will get the trait, then hop back on the boat, change the 3 detachment leaders, land again, and repeat. I had a nation in which every adult male was a crusader and they all loved each other and shared the war stories of hopping on and off the boat, then sailing away and agreeing to a white peace with the infidels. Ahhh Good times!

ChrisGwinn wrote:

Someone on the conference call mentioned that there were some good youtube overview videos for CK2. Can someone point me towards a favorite?

Try these, they look pretty thorough. I am just starting out though.

How have y'all been handling your heirs?

At first I'd find them a holding almost as soon as they came of age, because they'd keep giving me crap about it and so would the game (for having unlanded sons).

But then I realized that this would remove them from my court, which would mean that I couldn't arrange marriages for them (or the grandkids) any more. So now I'm leaning more toward sucking up the prestige hit for unlanded sons and just keeping them around until I have them married and at least one grandkid betrothed.

I've been given the green light to get a new laptop, but the budget isn't really there for a full gaming rig.

Would a Dell with a core I5, 6GB of RAM and the Intel integrated graphics processor run this game? I've read forum posts on other sites that suggest yes, but I trust you guys more than I trust them.

hbi2k wrote:

How have y'all been handling your heirs?

At first I'd find them a holding almost as soon as they came of age, because they'd keep giving me crap about it and so would the game (for having unlanded sons).

But then I realized that this would remove them from my court, which would mean that I couldn't arrange marriages for them (or the grandkids) any more. So now I'm leaning more toward sucking up the prestige hit for unlanded sons and just keeping them around until I have them married and at least one grandkid betrothed.

It's a trade-off. I tend to send them off when I've found them a good spouse. Another thing to consider is that the longer you keep them in your court instead of ruling their own corner of the realm, the longer they go without earning prestige from those titles, which means they have a harder time when they take over.

What sort of graphics are integrated? The requirements are not gigantic.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I've been given the green light to get a new laptop, but the budget isn't really there for a full gaming rig.

Would a Dell with a core I5, 6GB of RAM and the Intel integrated graphics processor run this game? I've read forum posts on other sites that suggest yes, but I trust you guys more than I trust them.

i3, 4gigs and integrated intel chip here. Runs fine. Takes a good while to load (on my setup) but runs nicely afterwards.

The game isn't exactly a graphical beast (it's not the sort of game that needs to be). I can't speak from personal experience since my rig has a pretty decent graphics card for a laptop and that's what would be your biggest bottleneck, but an i5 should be more than up to the task and all that RAM can't hurt either. If you're hearing reports of good results with similar setups, I'd be inclined to believe them.

hbi2k wrote:

How have y'all been handling your heirs?

At first I'd find them a holding almost as soon as they came of age, because they'd keep giving me crap about it and so would the game (for having unlanded sons).

I've been taking the prestige hit, but I don't know if that's the best way since 10 years of a count's or duke's prestige will add up...

I don't grant land though, because left to themselves, heirs don't make the best choices for spouses, and I also like being able to educate some of my children and grandchildren myself. I haven't yet made my dynasty of diligent, patient geniuses, but I'm hoping that'll happen.

hbi2k wrote:

But then I realized that this would remove them from my court, which would mean that I couldn't arrange marriages for them (or the grandkids) any more. So now I'm leaning more toward sucking up the prestige hit for unlanded sons and just keeping them around until I have them married and at least one grandkid betrothed.

I've found that they can make decent marriages on their own. In my game, my granddaughter (who was my heir) got married to the heir of the kingdom. If her husband hadn't later committed suicide, she would have been queen.

The_Vinnlander wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

How have y'all been handling your heirs?

At first I'd find them a holding almost as soon as they came of age, because they'd keep giving me crap about it and so would the game (for having unlanded sons).

I've been taking the prestige hit, but I don't know if that's the best way since 10 years of a count's or duke's prestige will add up...

I don't grant land though, because left to themselves, heirs don't make the best choices for spouses, and I also like being able to educate some of my children and grandchildren myself. I haven't yet made my dynasty of diligent, patient geniuses, but I'm hoping that'll happen. :-)

IMAGE(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YgSgFY90Vtc/TKWROz4IeAI/AAAAAAAAAAU/bbNYKREk4eE/s1600/233-Eugenics-tree-logo.jpg)

I like how "medicine" and "surgery" are separate roots of the tree. Not to mention anthropometry...

Another strategy question: what are the benefits / drawbacks to having the non-demesne parts of your realm split up into counties with earls and such that report directly to you, vs. having them report to dukes who then report to you?

Having united Ireland, my duke-of-Munster-cum-King-of-Ireland decided to jump into civil-war-wracked Scotland and impose some order. Kicked the crap out of the incompetent old King of Scotland and sent the rival English claimant scurrying out without even having to fight him (helps that I'm married to an English princess so they would've had to break the alliance and take the accompanying reputation hit to fight me).

Anyhoo, I usurped the Scottish throne, but Scotland was a mess and everyone hated everyone else, including me. So I took two of the strongest dukes who were threatening to rebel, sent them some gifts and honorary titles, and also transferred over a vassal apiece and turned them from my biggest threats into my strongest supporters.

The alternative was a messy civil war that would have bankrupted the realm and might even have tempted the English to come in and muck things up again, so I'm pretty confident I did the right thing, but I'm just curious how big a compromise I made by giving away vassals like that.

dejanzie wrote:

- One of my many daughters was asked to marry a Swedish prince, and I agreed. I have no idea what the consequences will be, or how I can find out.

The consequences are that Sweden will suffer your miserable Danish existence a while longer, and your daughter gets to join the winning team. Hooray for her!

Prozac wrote:

I really wish that you could search characters by traits. The number of times I've had to scroll endlessly through lists trying to find future brides for newly born kinsmen that meet my Eugenics criteria.

You should get a magic mirror. It could tell you who the ____-est of them all is.

hbi2k wrote:

Another strategy question: what are the benefits / drawbacks to having the non-demesne parts of your realm split up into counties with earls and such that report directly to you, vs. having them report to dukes who then report to you?

I can only think of three drawbacks: a) more layers usually means the possibility of more unrest, or rather the less direct control you have for managing that unrest; this usually translates into slightly higher revolts, 2) a slight financial hit as the sub-vassal's money is funneled through your direct vassal instead of coming directly to you (you direct vassal will get his cut which eats into yours), and III) later on, as family lines get more muddled, there is a greater chance of losing one of the sub-vassals, again because you will have less direct control over them. These are the only 3 I can think of.

One the plus side, as you found out, the people you give the vassals to really like you.

I guess after it is all said and done, the minuses are really about giving up more direct control of the vassals, but they seem to me to be minor. From what you did in your game, it appears that you made the absolute right call.