
Deus Vult – Social Networks in Crusader Kings 2 - creade
http://www.anquantarbuile.com/social-networks-in-ck2
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jwdunne
Oh man, I've sunk countless hours into CK2. Such a rich game and I highly
recommend it.

This post pretty much lays out a facet of what I love and alludes to the
bigger picture: start with a historical setting and run with it, often
diverging.

One game I became the king of Ireland and then somehow the king of Britanny. I
then only had female child heirs. They got overthrown and ended up cast out of
Ireland.

I was intrigued by that so I started a game as a count in Britanny. Worked my
way up to the petty king of Britanny. Somehow engineered inheritance of
another duchy - became a proper king of Britanny and then somehow became king
of Aquitaine (so the king of half of modern day France).

EU4 is another fantastic game based on the same engine. Less focused on
dynasties and more geopolitics/colonisation, this also throws you into
historical settings. As Portugal, I became holy Roman emperor - they got into
a fluff where no one liked each other so I was the only choice even though I
wasn't in the HRE.

I'd love for Paradox to officially "link up" all the games so you can go from
ancient Rome all the way to say the modern world. That would mean EU: Rome and
Victoria on the new engine and also a new cold war era game they definitely
need to make (focusing on modern geopolitics).

Clearly a secret Paradox fanboy!

~~~
madez
Paradox is doing most things right, not like some of their competitors. No
pay-to-win or other ingame buys, but optional DLCs, that actually enhance the
game, and constant development and care over years for their games, and
excellent multiplatform support. Also, they are successfully producing some of
the games with the highest (hours of gameplay)/(price) ratio, second only to
some indie games and the unbeatable Dwarf Fortress.

These games are not for everyone. Also, not entirely unlike Dwarf Fortress,
they might seem a bit off-putting due to their complexity. But they have a
much better GUI, and learning the basics is faster. It still takes time,
though.

~~~
WesleyLivesay
I like that they are doing, but I think their DLC strategy is starting to
cause some concern in various online gaming circles.

People loved it with CK2 because it expands the game so much, and it was
unlike what they were doing before. This helped people forgive the fact that
the base game was just okay at launch. Contrast that to HoI4 where the base
game was not fantastic at launch (but probably not much worse than CK2 at
launch in terms of stability and systems) and then the DLC train started and I
saw a lot more negative comments online. There were similar conversations
around the Stellaris launch "Oh they are going to make us pay or features that
should have been in the game in post launch DLC".

That could just mirror changes in players being hyper-sensitive to
DLC/Monetization strategies these days, and probably don't bother the people
who are really into Paradox games and put hundreds if not thousands of hours
into them.

I am very interested to see what they do next with Crusader Kings, since they
have mentioned a few times they plan on ending the DLC soon. Transitioning to
a CK3 seems incredibly difficult given how barebones it will feel.

~~~
distances
Civilization solved this by including most of the content in Civ5 DLCs to the
base game in Civ6. They did start the DLC train immediately with highly priced
extra civilizations though, and got major flak for doing that.

~~~
jwdunne
I read about that actually. They use a 3rds model: retain a 3rd of existing
systems, improve on a 3rd of existing systems and bring in a 3rd of totally
new gameplay systems.

I don't bother with non-gameplay DLC. I don't get these story packs. I'd
prefer DLC that overhauls some aspect and provides deeper gameplay.

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payamb
Anyone knows a good alternative to Victoria 2 ? I had so much fun in Victoria
II but its unplayable now and always crashes.

~~~
j_s
Might find some help getting things working on the Steam discussion forum for
the game:

[http://steamcommunity.com/app/42960/discussions/](http://steamcommunity.com/app/42960/discussions/)

It appears to be still for sale ($20), without overwhelming reports of
technical issues:

[http://store.steampowered.com/app/42960/Victoria_II/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/42960/Victoria_II/)

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cliftoncburton
It was pretty fun and I'd recommend it.

