Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

A very-high-health leader who doesn't get sick often can easily hit 100.

Inevitably, I end up with Elective succession because otherwise I get a string of old farts as characters who just die in a conga line.

Well, he finally died at age 97. Inconveniently in the middle of a war, but whatever.

Then I had the problem of three heirs dying in about a 10 year period. To be expected, I guess. Now I'm trying to reassemble my former kingdom, since succession was so screwed up by this point I have no idea what I'm even expected to own anymore.

And somehow I have a weak claim on Tibet? I don't even...

tanstaafl wrote:

And somehow I have a weak claim on Tibet? I don't even...

There is potential here.

The Chinese also had a weak claim but look what they’ve done with the place!

CK2 (base game) is free "for a limited time". You get to keep it permanently if you add it to your Steam library before Saturday, 10am Pacific time.

DLC is on sale, too.

I'm kind of hoping this is a sign that the CK2 Cycle is drawing to a close. The last couple of DLC have been pretty meh at best IMO. I think they have pushed this game as far as they can - I would love to be proved wrong on that BTW. But I really hope they are working on CK3 (after Victoria 3 first though ) as I really want to see what direction they take this game.

That being said, I have started a new game in Tibet and is going strong and fun so far.

BTW, does anybody have a suggestion on where I could start to play through as a merch. rep. without starting as one of the 3 classical Mediterranean ones? In essence, I need to be a non-pagan tribal, to convert from tribal into MR. I suppose I could always try to start as a pagan tribal that converts, but that's not so easy either. Also, I'd prefer being coastal in that case. Any suggestions?

tboon wrote:

I'm kind of hoping this is a sign that the CK2 Cycle is drawing to a close. The last couple of DLC have been pretty meh at best IMO. I think they have pushed this game as far as they can - I would love to be proved wrong on that BTW. But I really hope they are working on CK3 (after Victoria 3 first though ) as I really want to see what direction they take this game.

I was wondering something similar, as though this could be effectively a promotion to get more new people familiar with Paradox ahead of an announcement of some sort. May be optimistic.

I never finished a full game of CK2. I either burned out, failed horribly or my save got borked somehow. Mostly the last one. That doesn't mean I didn't have fun though, I'm just looking forward to CK3 and a (hopefully) more stable experience start to finish.

tboon wrote:

(after Victoria 3 first though )

I second this!

MoonDragon wrote:

That being said, I have started a new game in Tibet and is going strong and fun so far.

ལྷ་རྒྱལ་ལོ། my fellow Tibetan player!

I thought I was the only one...

When I saw the announcement for CK2 being free, I was sad. Sure it means some new people will start playing but it can only mean Paradox considers the game at its end of life. Trying to get a bit more money out of the DLC's before they move on.

On the other hand: the latest DLC's were not as interesting anymore. So yes, it might be time for them to move on and start working on CK3, if not already.

Also: when they stop adding new stuff, I might get a chance of putting some time in their other games

Now I cannot stop thinking on how CK3 will look like!

Man, just looking at HoI4 and even EU4 gets me all giddy for CK3 possibilites.

But I also think Viki3 might be the best next move for Paradox.

CK2 really feels feature complete by this point. Time for them to move on.

Aaron D. wrote:

Man, just looking at HoI4 and even EU4 gets me all giddy for CK3 possibilites.

But I also think Viki3 might be the best next move for Paradox.

CK2 really feels feature complete by this point. Time for them to move on.

I agree on both, no need to rush on CK3. Still plenty to do on CK2 without worrying about a game getting corrupt by an upgrade due to another DLC

I'd love to see them take another stab at EU: Rome, perhaps leaning a bit more in to the CK2-like character stuff.

If we are wish listing- I’d love to see a Cold War game; 1945-1991.

billt721 wrote:

I'd love to see them take another stab at EU: Rome, perhaps leaning a bit more in to the CK2-like character stuff.

Yeah, more character sim, less EU. That's sort of how Rome worked.

Add me to the list of people who think CKII has hit it's limit (and I've got a few hundred hours into it). I think it was telling that when they added China they had to add it "off-screen". They can't add anything more to the engine.

As for CKIII, I'd like to see them lean more into the ruler/family/dynasty dynamic, Even more rpg-lite options. Giving me more options inside my own domain would reduce the amount of "well, there's nothing else going on, guess I'll see who I can start a war with now".

And who knew that most wars in the medieval era were started out of boredom?

Didn’t they purchased some Chinese company recently? Wouldn’t that indicate they’re probably going to make some China themed game, to get their foot in the door of the largest potential gaming market of the world?

I know TenCent bought a 5% stake in Paradox (to join its investments in other Western gaming companies). Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

Tencent had been buying into everyone so it doesn't mean much (at the moment).

Paradox had made a Japanese game without any Japanese publisher/dev/etc so if they wanted to a China game I'm sure they'd do it without having to acquire or be acquired by a Chinese company.

That said, they're European devs so it makes sense for them to focus mostly on Europe for their games. Do what you know, eh?

garion333 wrote:

That said, they're European devs so it makes sense for them to focus mostly on Europe for their games. Do what you know, eh?

You say that, but I really want a grand strategy game that covers 5000 years of Chinese history.

Though I think Paradox's approach works better for balkanized regions, and China has long periods of unification. Unless Hearts of Iron IV improves on that?

I think a game that combines elements of EUIV and CK2, and takes us from, say, 1000BCE to around 1815CE would be fantastic.

Robear wrote:

I know TenCent bought a 5% stake in Paradox (to join its investments in other Western gaming companies). Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

Yea, guess I was misremembering.

Dude, it was a year ago. I had to look it up.

Gremlin wrote:
garion333 wrote:

That said, they're European devs so it makes sense for them to focus mostly on Europe for their games. Do what you know, eh?

You say that, but I really want a grand strategy game that covers 5000 years of Chinese history.

Though I think Paradox's approach works better for balkanized regions, and China has long periods of unification. Unless Hearts of Iron IV improves on that?

I don't think we want a (Mainland) Chinese company making a game about Chinese history.

Remember that EUIV and HoI4 are banned in China for portraying history somewhat accurately.

I would love to have games in the ancient African continent and ancient China settings. I also wouldn't mind them hand-holding me through the minutia of the cultural details, rather than slapping localized names onto European cultural concepts.

I guess I'm one of the people who would not like to merge EU series and CK series. For me EU games are not very fun. They quickly devolve into mid-game slog that is not fun at all, and has me constantly feeling like I'm missing details that are relevant. The premise of CK that it's not you who has to take over the world, but rather spread your bloodline to ensure its survival, is both a lot more realistic and a lot more liberating in how we approach the game.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/SlmXGHD.jpg)

Now you've done it.

I don't want a CK2 + EU4 game either. The games model different abstractions with different historical processes, despite at their core being very similar. It would be nice if Paradox would go all-in on being able to extend one game into the next for their main series, but that should be completely optional.

I'm not convinced Paradox Development Studios have the chops to pull off a non-Euro-centric game of this sort. Maybe they do but their foray into historical Japan (Sengoku) was not very good (granted, some of it not being very good was they did not support that game at all, maybe it could have ended up being good).

Without playing it, I've regarded Sengoku as the dry run to test the tech between CK and CK2.

TrashiDawa wrote:

I don't think we want a (Mainland) Chinese company making a game about Chinese history.

Remember that EUIV and HoI4 are banned in China for portraying history somewhat accurately.

The central unifying myth of China today is that China is unified and has always been China. China's neighbors tend to object to this, as did quite a few groups now subsumed within their borders.

This tends to clash with the mechanics of grand strategy games.

Gremlin wrote:

Without playing it, I've regarded Sengoku as the dry run to test the tech between CK and CK2.

It certainly was. I admit I got it to check out the new-at-the-time UI more than any interest in it as an actual game. In that, it was a success, especially compared to original CK's UI. However, as a game, it was not good, there was nothing to do except prepare for war, war, and lick your wounds after a war before starting the cycle again. Which is too bad because there is an interesting game in there somewhere that needed some of the Paradox long tail support.

Hi, New to the game bc humble bundle, playing with the castillians and trying to reconquer south spain, I occupy all forts, castles and cities from a province but I can't seem to expel the moors that way, and when they offer white peace I agree and lose all the advancement. Seem to be missing an important key element on my approach, any pointers with this? Other than that, the game is quite fun so far