Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[Razgovory]

Garbon didn't respond to my email.

[garbon]

Finally had my first game where HRE formed. Charlemagne died fairly quickly before taking Italy, Bavaria or Saxony. His realm was split into West Francia and East Francia under two sons. Not entirely sure what happened but ruler of West Francia was Germanic pagan and inherited Italy. I was sure that meant a pending collapse but instead he converted to Catholicism and shortly thereafter formed the HRE. King of East Francia died of pneumonia and his title went to the emperor so HRE now consists of modern France, Frisia, Italy, and half of western Germany.

[Josquius]

When you're an elected monarchy are you stuck?
Decided to give in to some rebels because I couldn't be bothered with fighting and my heir sucked

[Valmy]

I might get that portrait pack - the default ones are pretty terrible

It is free so there is really no reason not to.

[garbon]

It also auto downloaded when I opened CK2 as my steam and p'dox account are linked.

[dps]

It also auto downloaded when I opened CK2 as my steam and p'dox account are linked.

Yeah.  I wouldn't pay for purely graphical content (unless the default graphic were so bad they were unusable), but free is a different story, especially if you don't have to even do anything and get it automatically.

[Zanza]

CK2 is actually the one game where I paid for purely graphical content before. As the game is about characters, it adds a lot if you have all the portrait packs.

[garbon]

Well maybe not the Celtic one. That one is...unfortunate.

[garbon]

Hey for those who have Reaper's Due - is there anyway to turn off some of the ridiculous character graphics? Bit immersion breaking to see so many eye patches and leper masks(?)

[garbon]

German portraits & Units




English portraits & units




What's annoying is this bit:

An important note is that the Content Pack will be bundled with Monks and Mystics and automatically included when you buy the expansion.

I'd be willing to pay for those graphics, but don't want to pay for Monks and Mystics.

[Valmy]

It takes a very special sort of game to produce a situation where your homosexual lover, the Pope, breaks up with you because of the intervention of your daughter who is also your wife.

[Valmy]

Hey for those who have Reaper's Due - is there anyway to turn off some of the ridiculous character graphics? Bit immersion breaking to see so many eye patches and leper masks(?)

I don't think so. Yeah the masks really freaked me out at first.

That expansion drives me nuts. Sure it makes disease a much bigger deal, which is good, but it makes getting a good court physician a rather absurdly important part of this game. Also I object to learning as the stat that determines how good they are. Being a doctor in those days was very much a trade skill, you apprenticed and all that. It was not something the scholars would be particularly good at. In Western Europe anyway.

But hey you just kind of roll with it.

[garbon]

Turns out they are disfigurement masks. Will play around with modding to drop that, or make disfigurement less common.

[garbon]

Turns out they are disfigurement masks. Will play around with modding to drop that, or make disfigurement less common.

Ah found it. There's a file called portrait_properties.txt in the interface folder. Can edit that so masks never show.

[garbon]

Someone decided to tell it like it is:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/worst-expansion-since-the-aztec-invasion-one.1004257/

Virtually no new mechanics of any note. Nothing even remotely interesting except retreading monastic ground which they've already covered in a past expansion. There's so much more interesting ground that they haven't touched on, which could've been tackled.

A bunch've horrible, supernatural events, like they think they're making a Game of Thrones mod or something and completely departing from even the pretense of historical realism.

Overpriced at that, for what basically amounts to a bunch've lame events.

CK2 did not need to add magic. What it needs is something like, I don't know. Naval warfare? It's amazing to think that I beta tested this game, years and years ago, and remained active doing so through the first 5-6 expansions, and it had so much promise - and lately it's just turned to complete crap.

All they're doing these days is offering a bit've artwork, and a few lame modded events/decisions, and they're passing it off as a $15 DLC. I will not be buying this.

Should Paradox care? Maybe. I've bought every other expansion except the Aztec one, and I've had a considerable investment in the series both as a player and a beta tester. Given the cliche, mediocre and simply wrongheaded design direction of this one...It's amazing to think that people have jobs and are being paid money to push out DLC content this shallow and worthless. It's amazing anyone is buying it, when they could just go download the GoT mod for free, if they wanted a fantasy experience.

Howabout putting out an actual expansion which adds even marginally to the historical experience? And not just putting out what amounts to essentially a bunch've poorly written, overtuned events, some new decisions, and one semi-new, poorly thought out mechanic that does jack shit. Like the last one with the plagues, with building the retreat.

The last decent DLC was the one that added nomads to the game. But none have been quite so insulting to our intelligence, as this one. It's like they're trying to figure out the exact least amount they can do, and think the majority of people will still buy it. That's fine from a business model standpoint, but it's hardly inspiring.

I've been a loyal Paradox customer for way too long, given my join date, and the latest content, given the stylistic and design directions they've taken in HoI 4, Stellaris and the latest CK2 DLC jsut leaves me stone cold. I'm no longer at a place where I reflexively buy everything Paradox puts out just to support the company.

At some point, you can't just keep charging people $15 every time the interns, who have clearly never read or seen anything about the era in question beyond say, watching Game of Thrones on television, cobbles together some typo-ridden event chain and you add some artwork to it. Where's the actual vision?

Where is even the pretense of trying to bring history to life, that the game's original release and most of the previous DLC paid at least token lip service to? This just reminds me of a return to the bad old Republic DLC, which devs admitted was done so poorly. I.E, the dlc where they thought the best event chain for a feuding merchant republic in the 11th century would be to model it after Romeo and Juliet in the Renaissance era, and the trade posts were (and still are) horribly implemented.

But at least the Republic tried. This is just flagrant, supernatural bull-crap best left to modders, like Aztec Invasion. It's like Paradox has more artists than they have people with any ounce of real creativity or drive to make a decent product.