Crusader Kings II: When all else fails, I open my heart and put my faith in Satan

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crusader Kings II: When all else fails, I open my heart and put my faith in Satan

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GenderSelectScreen: Mar 7, 2010; I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME; College Slice

Larry Parrish posted:

Oh no, someone's having fun. Better go poo poo on them. :c00lbutt:

Using the console to mess around is cool and fun. Everyone should try it. Just like everyone should try to mod something. Not many games give you this kind of freedom these days.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 16:19

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# ? May 28, 2024 13:56

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

Eh? I see no mention of the console being used initially. So why mention it?

# ? Sep 7, 2015 16:42

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Hey guys I was having a blast playing FEAR 2 but I ran into one of those BULLSHIT soldiers with a rocket launcher instead of a regular gun so I turned on the ol' god mode and blew him up with a frag grenade. Freaking badass.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 16:48

GenderSelectScreen: Mar 7, 2010; I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME; College Slice

Bloodly posted:

Eh? I see no mention of the console being used initially. So why mention it?

Dareon posted:

Ironically, by using the console even more. Imprison will win any war at any time (I've used this to ensure the Rise of the Shia is actually viable), religion changes can make interesting things happen (Germanic Byzantium is not as hilariously failure-prone as you might expect thanks to the viceroyalties), and just add_trait can give you an edge (Try sticking Decadent on the Basileus and all his children).

Emphasis mine.

EDIT:

Larry Parrish posted:

Hey guys I was having a blast playing FEAR 2 but I ran into one of those BULLSHIT soldiers with a rocket launcher instead of a regular gun so I turned on the ol' god mode and blew him up with a frag grenade. Freaking badass.

It appears your main problem was playing FEAR 2.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 16:48

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

Except that post came after

Larry Parrish posted:

First off by not using the console like a bitch.

When the post he was talking about :

SlothfulCobra posted:

Trying to save Sicily and southern Italy is just giving me so much trouble. I lost everything to a Jihad. The Seljuks took it all, and I got shunted out into the half of Sardinia that I fought so hard for, and my ruler died, leaving nothing but a regency for his daughter, I figured that was pretty much game over, and I married the princess off to the prince of Castille, figuring that I could just ride out the regency and then jump into his head, that would work for roleplay purposes. The game wouldn't even let me have that, some loser from an obscure branch of the lineage pulled some weird takeover, kicking my last heir off the throne before she even had the chance to properly sit on it.

So I loaded up the next save after that, and I jumped into Castille, and that was okay, I guess, I managed to make some decent headway on conquering muslims here and there, even though Galicia kept poaching my vassals somehow. I figured I could reconquer that pointless northern half of Sardinia to reclaim some kind of contiguity with my last royal line, when I notice that the jerk who deposed my heir died, and he left his daughter in a regency, and since she wasn't old enough to have kids, her heir was...my wife, the one true heir to the de Hauteville family. That's a straightforward assassination opportunity if I've ever seen one. So I start a plot to kill her, and of course it took forever for it to finally land, and in that time the Pope launched a reconquista of Sicily, which gave the usurper all the land that I lost to the jihad, making it an even more attractive target for inheritance.

But of course, the plot took forever to take affect, even with over 200% power, and during that time I had to watch from afar as my old kingdom of Sicily steadily lost land to the HRE. When my wife finally did inherit the kingdom back, the Byzantines declared holy war upon her (somehow they had flopped over into Islam when I wasn't looking), and there was nothing I could do to help her fend off their attack, especially with the holy orders busy somewhere else. Now half the Kingdom of Sicily has been taken by the HRE and the Byzantines, and when eventually Sicily and Castille are united in their single heir, there'll still be nothing I can do to stand up against the two empires. Even if I go back to plan B and bugger off to Spain, the HRE's going to come get me eventually. It's a monster, it's gobbled up half of Europe now, and France is too falling apart to provide any real buffer.

Basically, tl;dr how do you stand up to either of the empires?

didn't mention the console at all.

Again, I ask, why bring it up?

# ? Sep 7, 2015 16:51

GenderSelectScreen: Mar 7, 2010; I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME; College Slice

Ah, I guess that was Larry just being Larry. :shrug:

# ? Sep 7, 2015 16:53

Goofballs: Jun 2, 2011

Can we cut to 3 pages time when everyone agrees that how you enjoy your singleplayer games is your own problem while acknowledging that the challenge of not using the console feels more rewarding and at the same time acknowledging that there are some stupid mechanics in the game and that being a small state next to a gigantic blob is a pain.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:00

Aschlafly: Jan 5, 2004; I identify as smart.
(But that doesn't make it so...)

No, the only correct way to play the game is Ironman++, where you commit suicide when your ruler dies and hand the keyboard to your offspring (or younger brother or uncle).

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:05

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Bloodly posted:

Except that post came after

When the post he was talking about :

didn't mention the console at all.

Again, I ask, why bring it up?

Yes it does. It's cool that you didn't read it but whatever dude.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:12

GenderSelectScreen: Mar 7, 2010; I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME; College Slice

Larry Parrish posted:

Yes it does. It's cool that you didn't read it but whatever dude.

So reloading a save isn't kosher for you anymore?

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:19

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Deceitful Penguin posted:

So the sole actually redeeming quality for Zunists other than their festival, i.e, they don't have to fiddle around with the annoying intrigue interface to get rid of useless prisoners, is gone?

Welp.

Makes the 'character becomes Zunist' outcome of the judgement pretty darn pointless, too, since if they're your vassal in all probability they're already zunist.

It also still sets them to the base zunism, even if the religion is reformed. They didn't fix the thing that needed fixing, they just removed stuff.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:27

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

So reloading a save isn't kosher for you anymore?

He says he was planning on swapping to a non-dynasty member to keep playing the save

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:30

GenderSelectScreen: Mar 7, 2010; I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME; College Slice

Larry Parrish posted:

He says he was planning on swapping to a non-dynasty member to keep playing the save

# ? Sep 7, 2015 17:43

Rejected Fate: Aug 5, 2011

Larry Parrish posted:

He says he was planning on swapping to a non-dynasty member to keep playing the save

...That's not cheating, though, or using the console. It's a mechanic in the game so you can continue playing a timeline when your dynasty is wiped out. It's something Paradox intended to be used.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 18:28

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Aaaaaaa, your wife can still confront you about having an affair with your concubine. How is this still not fixed. It is so painfully simple to do...

# ? Sep 7, 2015 19:22

Jump King: Aug 10, 2011

I usually delete and rebuy CKII when my last dynasty member dies so I can understand why it's frustrating when other people use weird console cheats to play another game.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 19:44

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Hey, that's interesting. They slightly revised the demonspawn event chain in Horse Lords. Instead of the witches that show up to help you being the generic pagan, they're given extant pagan faiths. Morgana is Norse, Jezebel is Zunist, and Circe, obviously, is...also Zunist, because Groogy is mean.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 20:17

BravestOfTheLamps: Oct 12, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Lipstick Apathy

Strudel Man posted:

Morgana is Norse, Jezebel is Zunist, and Circe, obviously, is...also Zunist, because Groogy is mean.

Ouch.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 20:32

skipThings: May 21, 2007; Tell me more about this
"Wireless fun-adaptor" you were speaking of.

Strudel Man posted:

Hey, that's interesting. They slightly revised the demonspawn event chain in Horse Lords. Instead of the witches that show up to help you being the generic pagan, they're given extant pagan faiths. Morgana is Norse, Jezebel is Zunist, and Circe, obviously, is...also Zunist, because Groogy is mean.

Is Groogy just a joker who wants to troll people who are too invested in old Greece, or is he legitimately angry about the religion being in the game but not allowed to delete it ?

# ? Sep 7, 2015 21:13

Dallan Invictus: Oct 11, 2007; The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes, look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

skipThings posted:

Is Groogy just a joker who wants to troll people who are too invested in old Greece, or is he legitimately angry about the religion being in the game but not allowed to delete it ?

Groogy likes trolling everybody, particularly the Hellenic fans.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 21:21

FutonForensic: Nov 11, 2012

I'm not sure if I like Way of Life that much. The free attribute bonuses are nice I guess, but I incessantly get the "Take one vassal's opinion over another!" event, nearly every three minutes. Other than that, the only event I've gotten related to the DLC is my wife got discovered cheating, so now we have an infertility bonus. Not a positive experience.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 21:22

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

skipThings posted:

Is Groogy just a joker who wants to troll people who are too invested in old Greece, or is he legitimately angry about the religion being in the game but not allowed to delete it ?

Definitely the former. The religion isn't in the game in any meaningful sense.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 21:36

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

FutonForensic posted:

The free attribute bonuses are nice I guess, but I incessantly get the "Take one vassal's opinion over another!" event, nearly every three minutes.

The rulership focus one, you mean? If so, yeah, that one's a little iffily designed, I feel. It's triggered on the vassal side, so the rate at which you get it scales directly with the number of vassals you have. Thanks to that, I could get the administrator trait in about a year or so in the horde game where I kept a city and temple barony in each province.

Conversely, if you're small, you can go decades without advancement.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 21:46

Mr.Morgenstern: Sep 14, 2012

Strudel Man posted:

Hey, that's interesting. They slightly revised the demonspawn event chain in Horse Lords. Instead of the witches that show up to help you being the generic pagan, they're given extant pagan faiths. Morgana is Norse, Jezebel is Zunist, and Circe, obviously, is...also Zunist, because Groogy is mean.

This is amazing. :allears:

# ? Sep 7, 2015 21:53

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

The funny thing about hordes is that it seems like they make most ruler stats irrelevant, or mostly so. Diplomacy I guess is still useful for raising your small vassal limit, but your troops don't scale with martial as they do for feudal realms, nor do you get technology from learning. Intrigue is normal, ish. Stewardship is quasi-useful as a percentage boost to your income, though obviously the demesne limit effect is gone.

I suppose thematically one should focus on martial, but I always feel a bit lost when picking a focus.

# ? Sep 7, 2015 23:21

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Strudel Man posted:

The funny thing about hordes is that it seems like they make most ruler stats irrelevant, or mostly so. Diplomacy I guess is still useful for raising your small vassal limit, but your troops don't scale with martial as they do for feudal realms, nor do you get technology from learning. Intrigue is normal, ish. Stewardship is quasi-useful as a percentage boost to your income, though obviously the demesne limit effect is gone.

I suppose thematically one should focus on martial, but I always feel a bit lost when picking a focus.

Scholarship is actually pretty good, because getting those sweet tech-boosts is pretty important, and the military one has way less downsides with no pope.

Also it improves the likelyhood of the spymaster swaggin' some tech.

Theology is even more completely loving useless though. Intrigue is hella sweet though; why yes, I would like to imprison this clan leader who is causing problems and throw him in the oubliette.

Also:

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Ok, googling isn't working, is there nowhere where I can get a convenient look at the nomad build-tree? Pretty annoying.

Seriously, I guess I could just fire it up with quickbuild and max tech and look but ehh.

Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Sep 7, 2015

# ? Sep 7, 2015 23:29

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Also it improves the likelyhood of the spymaster swaggin' some tech.

Oh, yeah! I saw that one, and then promptly forgot about it. That does make it decently useful. One of the few such cross-mechanics present.

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Ok, googling isn't working, is there nowhere where I can get a convenient look at the nomad build-tree? Pretty annoying.

It isn't much of a tree, really. Each level of riding contests requires that the same level of horse breeder be built first. Each level of ox wagon requires the same level of cattle pens; meat preserver depends on cattle pens in the same way. Felt crafter depends on sheep, and ger crafter depends on felt crafter. Everything else just depends on tech/location.

So, uh

code:

Horse Breeder	->	Riding Contests

Cattle Pens	->	Ox Wagon
		|->	Meat Preserver

Sheep		->	Felt Crafter	->	Ger Crafter

# ? Sep 8, 2015 00:59

Eric the Mauve: May 8, 2012; Making you happy for a buck since 199X

The Administrator trait is now extra awesome because it boosts army movement speed, like Organizer. I'm not even sure when that got patched in but I just noticed it last week.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 01:28

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Yep. Most of the lifestyle traits are kind of underwhelming, providing basically just stat effects. Administrator stands out, as does hedonist (fertility boost!), master seductress (rather useful on female rulers, at least until they hit age 45), game master (+30% on narrow flank...though I'm not sure if that makes a narrow flank more likely to happen, or just more beneficial when it does), and schemer (which, behind the scenes, makes you much more likely to do something when spying on someone).

# ? Sep 8, 2015 03:18

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Strudel Man posted:

(rather useful on female rulers, at least until they hit age 45)

Administrator being more baller aside (I don't even ever remember getting that legit) does the fact that men remain attractive pretty much into infirmity but women lose attractive the moment they are less likely to have kids seem just, dumb? People had recreational sex galore, and with older women, back in the day too.

Strudel Man posted:

Oh, yeah! I saw that one, and then promptly forgot about it. That does make it decently useful. One of the few such cross-mechanics present.

It isn't much of a tree, really. Each level of riding contests requires that the same level of horse breeder be built first. Each level of ox wagon requires the same level of cattle pens; meat preserver depends on cattle pens in the same way. Felt crafter depends on sheep, and ger crafter depends on felt crafter. Everything else just depends on tech/location.

So, uh
code:
Horse Breeder	->	Riding Contests

Cattle Pens	->	Ox Wagon
		|->	Meat Preserver

Sheep		->	Felt Crafter	->	Ger Crafter

Aight, though the increasing tech requirements make things more strange to do.

I swear though, I hardly play the game much these days, just set up what I feel are cool scenarios.

Also maxing the tech of the whole world at the start of Charlemagne does some funny things, yanno.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 09:36

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Forbflaith sounds like an onomatopoeia for throwing up and it keeps randomly generating for every one of my daughters. Stop it, game :mad:

# ? Sep 8, 2015 16:06

Midnight Voyager: Jul 2, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

Tendai posted:

Forbflaith sounds like an onomatopoeia for throwing up and it keeps randomly generating for every one of my daughters. Stop it, game

If it makes you feel any better, it's pronounced "Fur-la" and it means Sovereign. Not a terrible name choice!

# ? Sep 8, 2015 17:38

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Midnight Voyager posted:

If it makes you feel any better, it's pronounced "Fur-la" and it means Sovereign. Not a terrible name choice!

...okay well, yes. I should have said "reads like," rather. Gaelic spelling is never going to make sense to me.

Also it turns out your wife really gets pretty mad when you legitimize your ~25 bastards once you get old enough to not care. So do other people. RIP King Tadg, should have had someone check for snakes.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:18

Elias_Maluco: Aug 23, 2007; I need to sleep

The main problem with nomads, IMHO, is how stable they are and how fast you become too rich and strong.

I never had any problem with succession, and you can basically choose your heir freely among your child by making the one you like most get prestige.

With you awesome CBs, you can grab one piece of land after the other while raising more and more armies and getting more and more gold and before you know it you will have like 30 gold income and a 10K standing army of pure cavalry with little maintenance costs (took me 3 rulers to get to this, and it could have been faster if I wanst completely lost on the new mechanics during the first decades).

Is easy to keep your vassals that matter (clans) happy using that raise clan sentiment option with your chancellor, and you dont have to care about everyone else hating your guts, cause if they go up against you, you just smash then with your huge amazing army. And then you have an excuse to revoke their titles and give to people who likes you.

You can also switch religions like you switch clothes and it does not matters if you are pagan/heretic to most of your vassals (for the above reason) or if you cant convert a single province (you still get everything you need from then anyways). Im currently a cathar just because it allows me to employ woman. Before I was manichean and hindu and it didnt made any difference too.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 18:31

TorakFade: Oct 3, 2006; I strongly disapprove

Oooh I like easy mode. What's a good horde start, and what pitfalls should I be on the lookout for?

# ? Sep 8, 2015 19:18

Soup du Journey: Mar 20, 2006; by FactsAreUseless

How does the Aztec CB work in Sunset Invasion? Do they go after the highest held title? I've got the HRE spread out into France, which is one of the potential landing zones, and I'm wondering if I should be really, really, super serious about not losing that first war.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 19:46

Elias_Maluco: Aug 23, 2007; I need to sleep

TorakFade posted:

Oooh I like easy mode. What's a good horde start, and what pitfalls should I be on the lookout for?

I can tell you what I did:

Ive choose a vassal khan under the Khaganate of Uyghur, because I like starting as a vassal always. Ive started eating those buddhist counties to the south one after the other, then the smaller muslin nations to the north of the Arabian Empire. Then the empire exploded (by itself, I had no hand on this) and Ive started eating its pieces.

Dont need to care about overthrowing your liege if you start as vassal: by expanding fast you will quickly have more population and prestige then him, so when he dies you will just inherit the khagan for free.

Be at war at all times and dont care if your prestige runs low. Using it to raise armies is essential at the beginning and that subordination CB eats 300, but is very very useful. And buy more armies whenever you can.

Use you chancelor always to raise clan sentiment, leave your steward helping construction at your capital (having it helping to collect will earn little and cause you more trouble with vassals).

When you move your capital, it takes everything you built with it. So do it, move it near to where you are operating, so you dont have to cross half the world to get reinforcements. And if possible, move it to someplace over the silk route, so you can get loads of income from that too.

Dont care about factions and the fact your regular vassals will hate you all times. When they rebel, you crush then, arrest then and revoke their titles. And you can neutralize big dangerous vassal kingdoms by making a new clan (split clan option) and then giving it the kingdom title. You will have a huge happy khan vassal instead of a huge hateful feudal one, that is easier to control and will keep things quiet in its region by eating other smaller feudal realms (and then warring other vassal khans instead of you).

And dont ever land the son you want as heir, or you will be unable to send him as a mercenary to gain prestige.

Elias_Maluco fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Sep 8, 2015

# ? Sep 8, 2015 19:47

cock hero flux: Apr 17, 2011

It's actually easier to start as a vassal clan than as the head clan because the only time you will be weak as a nomad is right at the start before you get rolling and if you're the top guy you'll have the other clans loving with you constantly.

But if you're a vassal you basically just get to build in peace until you feel like going for the top spot.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 20:20

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

cock hero flux posted:

It's actually easier to start as a vassal clan than as the head clan because the only time you will be weak as a nomad is right at the start before you get rolling and if you're the top guy you'll have the other clans loving with you constantly.

But if you're a vassal you basically just get to build in peace until you feel like going for the top spot.

Is there any system for which this is not the case? Maybe it's just how I do things in the game but I've found starting small in feudalism to be the best way too. Every time I've started out as a king (or, god help me, an emperor) the infighting just gets insane off the bat.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 21:04

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# ? May 28, 2024 13:56

Orcs and Ostriches: Aug 26, 2010; The Great Twist

Nomads are fun. Started in Charlemagne start as one of the little Khans in the middle - Bozek or something. I'm constantly at war but my army's constantly getting bigger and my territory keeps growing. I can almost use a big invasion CB to take a neighbouring muslem kingdom, and the window's good right now. He only has about 1K (to my 3) troops, and he has no allies. First time I tried he called in friends and their doomstacks kept me away.

I have both Hymns of the Old Gods and the Steppes bonus content, and I have to say I really like the music in both. I want more songs.

# ? Sep 8, 2015 21:05

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crusader Kings II: When all else fails, I open my heart and put my faith in Satan

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