Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[dps]

Thanks! I had not considered the face packs, but that does make sense.

Personally I turn the facepacks I have off as I don't like the art style. They're definitely skippable.

I don't even have any of the facepacks, but if I ever start playing in India more, I'd consider getting some--the default Indian portraits are pretty hideous IMO, though I don't know if the facepacks would be an improvement.

[Jacob]

Ugh I think way of life is dreadful. Nice idea but horrible execution.

That's what I thought at first, but in my last few playthroughs I've warmed to them quite a bit.

What are your main objections?

[garbon]

I feel like the focuses are unbalanced. Some only make sense from an RP perspective and thus when you choose them, you know you are straying away from what would actually help your realm.

I also think they amount of events tied to each focus is too limited. Endless cycle of seeing the same flavor events is a negative.

And then how p'dox has still never truly fixed things like the sheer number of seductions that occur or the multitude of events about so and so sleeping with so and so and should you act on this scandalous information.

[dps]

I feel like the focuses are unbalanced. Some only make sense from an RP perspective and thus when you choose them, you know you are straying away from what would actually help your realm.

While overall I like Way of Life, I think that they are unbalanced, though I don't know about the only making sense from a RP POV part.

I also think they amount of events tied to each focus is too limited. Endless cycle of seeing the same flavor events is a negative.

Agree.  I think the Scholarship focus in particular suffers from this.  It doesn't make sense that your ruler in 800 publishes his finding on the heliocentric theory, but every subsequent ruler discovers the same things over again.

And then how p'dox has still never truly fixed things like the sheer number of seductions that occur or the multitude of events about so and so sleeping with so and so and should you act on this scandalous information.

Actually, with Conclave they've addressed this, in that now when someone refuses a seduction attempt, they won't accept any others for 10 years, and will never accept one from the same seducer again.  Granted, it doesn't entirely make sense that just because you turn down some loser no one else can seduce you for a decade, but that does a lot to limit the insane amount of seductions there used to be.

[Zanza]

I've only ever chosen like two or three different foci from Way of Life. Like 90% of the time the "Rule" focus as that's the important one that raises Stewardship a lot.

[dps]

I've only ever chosen like two or three different foci from Way of Life. Like 90% of the time the "Rule" focus as that's the important one that raises Stewardship a lot.

My experience with that one has been that you spend a lot of time waiting for events that hardly ever fire.

[garbon]

While overall I like Way of Life, I think that they are unbalanced, though I don't know about the only making sense from a RP POV part.

Well looking at focii:
Rulership - fairly good option for increasing stewardship and can bring nice traits
Business - mostly useless as not really as good as Rulership though apparently there are some good event modifiers to be had
Seduction - really seems rather pointeless
Intrigue - can be helpful as enable spying upon characters and freedom from captivity, as well as increasing intrigue skill
Hunting - mostly a subpar version of war
War - useful for increasing martial skill
Carousing - nice for dip increase but I'd typically opt for family as it is your title claimant relatives with whom you often need to mend relationships the most
Family - good for when your family members hate you. oh course the relationship events fire a lot so usually you are done wanting to be on that focus way before the cooldown has run out
Scholarship - virtually no reason to ever pick this though wiki notes you can get tech point events more often.
Theology - I guess if your have a lot of church vassals who hate you? Does open up pilgrimage which is nice for the trait bonii but is never really a fun series of events and once you've done it, you are still locked into theology until cooldown.

Also RP-wise they are kind of odd. For the next 5 years I will focus on business, then 5 years on family and then 5 years on martial.

Actually, with Conclave they've addressed this, in that now when someone refuses a seduction attempt, they won't accept any others for 10 years, and will never accept one from the same seducer again.  Granted, it doesn't entirely make sense that just because you turn down some loser no one else can seduce you for a decade, but that does a lot to limit the insane amount of seductions there used to be.

Ah good to hear. Agreed solution is odd but that's fine.

[Zanza]

Concur. War and Family make up the other 10% for me...

[Zanza]

Some new trait icons and it seems to be all about being sick. except perhaps the ones on the lower left, which look like the current Varangian Guard icon.


Some more icons which have not been explained so far. Are they used at the lower right of the character screen for temporary modifiers? Maybe.

[Valmy]

Is the one between the dog and the owl for signifying secret bears?

[Jacob]

Is the one between the dog and the owl for signifying secret bears?

It's a cat, I think

[Jacob]

Rulership - fairly good option for increasing stewardship and can bring nice traits
Business - mostly useless as not really as good as Rulership though apparently there are some good event modifiers to be had
Seduction - really seems rather pointeless
Intrigue - can be helpful as enable spying upon characters and freedom from captivity, as well as increasing intrigue skill
Hunting - mostly a subpar version of war
War - useful for increasing martial skill
Carousing - nice for dip increase but I'd typically opt for family as it is your title claimant relatives with whom you often need to mend relationships the most
Family - good for when your family members hate you. oh course the relationship events fire a lot so usually you are done wanting to be on that focus way before the cooldown has run out
Scholarship - virtually no reason to ever pick this though wiki notes you can get tech point events more often.
Theology - I guess if your have a lot of church vassals who hate you? Does open up pilgrimage which is nice for the trait bonii but is never really a fun series of events and once you've done it, you are still locked into theology until cooldown.

I guess it varies between playstyles. For me it goes like this:

Rulership - not bad. I mostly use it when I have a new ruler whose domain is too big while I try to up the relevant stats (or wait for the right bride); it does run the risk of getting stressed
Business - decent when I'm farming gold, which I often am in my current games
Seduction - awesome in that it opens up a nice alternate path for heir management (get as many bastards as possible, legitimize the girls and the right candidate to inherit); it's also a good venue to marry characters who otherwise wouldn't accept (and bring people to your court in the early game). It's also good for bringing in content characters, to help you combat stress.
Intrigue - I never use it.
Hunting - excellent late in life. It brings in some good martial characters on occasion, has a good chance of removing stress, and extends your lifespan. The dog is a nice bonus too.
War - is fine.
Carousing - is pretty good, can give some good friends, and can be targeted at family members too (and counsellors, which can be great in Conclave). It is, as I discovered, somewhat fraught if you have a lunatic ruler though. Yikes.
Family - is great, especially if you're trying to generate lots of children
Scholarship - I don't use this one too much as I find the "scientific breakthrough" events kind of lame.
Theology - has some decent traits, can result in friendship with clergy etc. It's more of an RP thing when I take that.

That doesn't really match your approach, which speaks to the nuance differences I think.

I do enjoy managing the kids too - try to raise the right combination of commanders, diplomats etc.

Ah good to hear. Agreed solution is odd but that's fine.

Yeah, in my last few games there hasn't been much in the way of people whoring themselves out all over. I did have my rival try to seduce my genius concubine, which added a nice bit of antipathy from an RP angle.

[dps]

Well, if we're going over all of the foci:

Rulership:  In theory, it's perhaps the best focus, but I don't use it much because, as I stated, it seems like the relevant events almost never fire for me, making it something of a waste of time.  Probably that's just bad luck on my part.  Otherwise, basically agree with Jacob.

Business:  Pretty much a weaker form of Rulership, but can be useful if you have city vassals that don't much like you (because, for example, you've shifted to higher taxes on them, which I tend to do).

Seduction:  While what Jacob said is true, I don't like to use the "get a bunch of bastards and legitimize the best of them" strategy, 'cause it seems too gamey to me.  Can be useful if you have a good number of female vassals (or if you have a homosexual ruler and happen to have a good number of homosexual vassals;  if you ever have a female ruler, most of your vassal should end up very loyal), and if you have council positions that can be held by women, you can seduce them and not have to worry much about them supporting you in council decisions.  Also a more reliable way to raise your intrigue stat than the Intrigue focus, IMO. 

Intrigue:  Not too useful IMO.  Spying on people only rarely pays off in my experience, and it's very rare that I want to bust someone out of prison.

Hunting:  I tend to switch to this for the health bonus when I have an older ruler (50 or over) who I want to keep around for as long as possible.  Also has some good (if somewhat repetitive) events.

War:  Nothing wrong with this one, but I usually have things I'm more concerned about than raising my martial stat, so I don't use it much.

Carousing:  I tend to use this with a new ruler, when I usually have a pretty high number of unhappy vassals.  Otherwise, pretty much what Jacob said, though I didn't know about problems with it if you have a lunatic on the throne.  Care to elaborate on that, Jake?

Family:  Mostly, I just use this with an older ruler as an alternative to hunting if I need the diplomatic boost.  I very rarely care what my family members think of me, and I almost never care what they think about each other.

Scholarship:  I use this a good bit, partly because the observatory chain of events fire pretty reliably and quickly in my experience, making it a good choice to take when you don't have anything else pressing to do.  As garbon said, though, by the end of the 5 year period, there's no reason not to switch out to something else right away.

Theology:  Mostly useful if your religious leaders dislike you.  I sometimes take it after the scholarship focus to repair my relations with the church, which the observatory events will do.

[Razgovory]

I have found Seduction to be fun when I have nothing else to do except wait.

[jimmy olsen]

If they're running out of ideas, why not make a fantasy DLC, Darklands style, just how people thought the world worked back then . The "your child is the spawn of the devil" event is pretty well done. I think a DLC like that would sell like hotcakes.