Crusader Kings 2: Reaper's Due

[Sonmi]

Surprised to see that no one posted anything about the new DLC, so I thought I'd make a thread to discuss our experiences with it.

Paradox might have gone a bit too far in the latest CK2 DLC, most characters can barely survive until they are 25 before dying of a rabbies/dysentery/leprosy combo. What they did to epidemics is fine, but they made non-epidemic illness WAY too common. Like, "you get a different serious illness every month before you lose your mind at 16 and die at 20" common.

Nerf that.

I mean, for fuck's sake, my first game with the DLC lasted three years before my whole dynasty (my brother and I) perished to sickness, and not even the nasty epidemic kind. Tried a second time, and we lasted less than a year! Third time was a bit more lucky, I got 40 years of play until I got my game over. By that time, half of the rulers in India were children and young siblings of previous rulers who had died to illness before they could see any of their progeny/younger siblings make it to adulthood, the other half were lepers.

 

[pookie101]

i just started a new game and there are options for fewer illnesses, etc.

but i expect it will be a patch or two before they fine tune it properly

 

[Pseudonym]

Well, then I'll hold off on buying that stuff. As somebody who (presumably) already has all the dlc, though. Do you have an opinion on the previous dlc: conclave. It's on sale now, but I'm kind of hesitant. I just got through a long game of EUIV and I might want to wait a while before playing more paradox. Does conclave do anything that might peak my interest in playing a certain way. (Horse lords, for example, gave some hilarious options that were worth it, but way off life didn't do much for me)

 

[Sonmi]

Well, then I'll hold off on buying that stuff. As somebody who (presumably) already has all the dlc, though. Do you have an opinion on the previous dlc: conclave. It's on sale now, but I'm kind of hesitant. I just got through a long game of EUIV and I might want to wait a while before playing more paradox. Does conclave do anything that might peak my interest in playing a certain way. (Horse lords, for example, gave some hilarious options that were worth it, but way off life didn't do much for me)

Conclave is extremely fun, adds loads of events, and the way the council works now better represents how feudal lords interacted with their vassals. It makes playing as a vassal considerably more enjoyable.

If you play as liege though, it'll mostly hamper your progress until you manage to find the right configuration for your realm. The best way to play by far is to empower the council up to being able to vote on war declarations, only keep 5-6 extremely powerful vassals that you all put on the council no matter their skills, and feed any conquest you make to these 5-6 aforementioned vassals to keep them content.

It's say whether or not you find it enjoyable depends on the way you play, it might be a gamble, but I'd say it's worth it.

EDIT: I'd also refrain from playing tribal or nomad if you enable Conclave, both of them have to deal with the council being a major thorn at their sides, which is not really fun.

 

[Catnip1024]

Haven't risked buying the new DLC yet - Paradox don't seem on top of the whole nice and balanced release thing, and I might wait for a sale.

But what are the actual additions that it brings? Because I can't see people selling a DLC on the basis that you all die of plague a lot.

I do like the new options tab at the start of a game. Being able to disable shattered retreat finally makes it viable to beat larger factions again. Haven't really played with any of the others, but it is nice to have some customisation.

 

[Sonmi]

But what are the actual additions that it brings? Because I can't see people selling a DLC on the basis that you all die of plague a lot.

That's pretty much it though, diseases are more potent and deadly than ever (and DYNAMIC), and you're given the tools to deal with them as best as you can. Also, something resembling a population system has been added, take care of your provinces and they'll become prosperous (but more people at the same place means less disease tolerance), have them be raided constantly or ravaged by an especially devastating plague, and you'll suffer depopulation (less levy, less money). It also added a few interactions with prisoners (torture and the like) and made it so that physical wounds were not generic anymore. Being "Maimed" is not longer a thing, the game now specifically tells you which body parts you miss, and the consequences that come with it.

It's really only for extra challenge and more interactivity.

Also, the physician events are probably the best the game has ever had, they are diverse as fuck and all of them are entertaining.

 

[Catnip1024]

That's pretty much it though, diseases are more potent and deadly than ever (and DYNAMIC), and you're given the tools to deal with them as best as you can. Also, something resembling a population system has been added, take care of your provinces and they'll become prosperous (but more people at the same place means less disease tolerance), have them be raided constantly or ravaged by an especially devastating plague, and you'll suffer depopulation (less levy, less money). It also added a few interactions with prisoners (torture and the like) and made it so that physical wounds were not generic anymore. Being "Maimed" is not longer a thing, the game now specifically tells you which body parts you miss, and the consequences that come with it.

It's really only for extra challenge and more interactivity.

Also, the physician events are probably the best the game has ever had, they are diverse as fuck and all of them are entertaining.

The population system sounds a lot like stamping on someone when they are down. Surely that just imbalances it so a couple of early raids can screw you right over...

More specific injuries might be good. It's definitely on my "when it's on sale list" ahead of the other DLCs I've skipped. Be interesting to see how they balance it though.

 

[Sonmi]

The population system sounds a lot like stamping on someone when they are down. Surely that just imbalances it so a couple of early raids can screw you right over...

More specific injuries might be good. It's definitely on my "when it's on sale list" ahead of the other DLCs I've skipped. Be interesting to see how they balance it though.

The population thing could definitively seen as a "kick'em while they're down" thing, but high population comes with its own downsides. You're definitively more open to disease (and disease now is rather relentless, something I hope they'll tweak) forcing you to invest in hospitals, and hospitals are extremely costly. (And now give an incentive to upgrading the Construction economic tech, considering their upgrades are tied to it)

Honestly, I'm really liking the DLC, it would be perfect if they just made the diseases rarer. Maybe something like having the Flu or Food poisoning representing 75% of illnesses, and having illnesses pop up less often.

 

[The Madman]

I've been enjoying it so far, although admittedly I'm still in the early stages and haven't seen a full blown plague yet. Had to start over when something about the patch broke my previous save, which is unfortunate since I was thissss close to establishing a Welsh Brittanian Empire, but I figure most of the major challenge was over anyway so whatever.

Anyway healthcare is more heavily covered with new events pertaining to getting sick or injured as well as new buildings and positions to help combat harm. Characters can now just be sick, not deathly sick or diseased or anything, just sick, and there's even different penalties and risks for different forms of sickness or injuries from battle and events. It's definitely ramping the difficulty up a bit as pox nearly wiped out my entire Dynasty within the first few hours of play, but I enjoy the challenge.

What's most awesome about this dlc/patch however are the other tweaks it made to the game. You now have way more customization options on starting a new game, you can tweak various difficulty settings, even revert or enhance some of the changes from previous dlc. Performance is improved and the game is playing more smoothly as well, which is always a good thing. I never had any severe problems like some people reported getting late game, but even so the difference is noticeable.

Seems like a good DLC so far. Might need some tweaking for the sake of difficulty obviously, but as far as features go it's a solid addition to the game.

 

[Recusant]

I'm glad to hear they've added in specific injuries; taking good parts of successful mods is a good sign. Have they also finally replaced assassination with something?

 

[Sonmi]

I'm glad to hear they've added in specific injuries; taking good parts of successful mods is a good sign. Have they also finally replaced assassination with something?

You have the option the re-enable the old "click to kill" button if you want, but that disables achievements.

The patch that came with the DLC is definitively one of the best they've ever done. (That is, if the councilor events firing so often isn't due to it)

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

I'll hold off on buying until the patches hit. I'm just happy I can now turn off shattered retreat, something CK2 certainly didn't need.

Also, the optimization is glorious. I might by able to do a full 769 run.

 

[Frankster]

I always wait for patches and preferably a sale before getting paradox dlc, even if this new dlc seems to be quite good value for money and adds a bunch of options fans have wanted for some time.

But yeah I heard the game is much faster now, both figuratively (the game performs better apparently?) and literally (your dynasty members die off a lot quicker now, less likely to have a long life).
In all fairness though, they did say they would do this in one of the interviews, where a dev explained they felt characters had a tendency to live too long for the medieval period.

This historical change seems to mostly piss off players though, so if there isn't a setting for it at game start, i expect modders will remedy this soon enough.

Also i'm surprised to see no one's mentioned the extra torture/execution options complete with gruesome sound effects xD
That's the part of the dlc i've been most looking forward to, and when mods like the Game of Thrones mod gets updated, is going to make playing certain families like the Boltons very...."immersive".
What? Why you all looking at me like that? D:

 

[Recusant]

I'm glad to hear they've added in specific injuries; taking good parts of successful mods is a good sign. Have they also finally replaced assassination with something?

You have the option the re-enable the old "click to kill" button if you want, but that disables achievements.

The patch that came with the DLC is definitively one of the best they've ever done. (That is, if the councilor events firing so often isn't due to it)

A pity. I don't give a rat's ass about achievements, but the justification for taking it out was "it's game-disru.tingly ovecpowered" (which was true) and "we're overhauling the plotting system to make it better" which thef still haven't done, and that was two years ago. The Elder Kings mod gave us specific injuries (another may have first; it's the only one I know of); it also gaveus a more dleshed out, non-instant assassination system.