snakeboy

I do not expect any of what I say to be implemented at this point, so consider it some sort of feedback and wishlist (for a future mod perhaps). The thing I like most about KoH2 is its strong and smooth economic, regional building. But in that regard I find two things lacking: the map is static and predetermined at start, and consequently as a player I feel I have little agency over how I want my regions to develop. I like the random differentiation in provinces but it would have been nice if not all villages, farms and other province features were there at the start. I’d love to grow new settlements through surplus food. Empire: Total War, which I loved for its strong economy play as well, had such a system where your provinces could develop certain (predetermined) new villages through surplus food (and other both positive and negative modifiers). It would be nice then, secondly, to be able to chose what kind of new grown settlement would exist: a village, castle or monastery. As it is now, it often happens that the province with the most castles also has the most or only monastery. While I applaud choices as a gameplay feature, it feels unsatisfactory that I cannot shape my empire as I wish. I would like to create (and roleplay) that certain regions become religious centers or military settlements and others become regional backwaters only good for hard labor like mining and logging. On top of that I would have loved to see a fertility system for lands for crops, so that you could develop and/or conquer certain regions that have strong fertility and can act as bread baskets for your empire. Again, Empire: Total War had such a gradation system (very low-low-average-good-abundant) that determined a farms output. All in all, while I certainly enjoy the regions development as it is, I do feel there’s a lack of differentiation and visual representation of the growth of my empire. While the map looks charming and visually pleasing enough, I can’t help but see it’s generic and static as well, with little change in how my lands look from start to end of a campaign.

Having thoroughly enjoyed my first run of KoH2, returning now I see that some lacking AI behavior is still widespread: it does not upgrade or even build it’s most basic of resources, and in coastal settlements it does not prioritize harbors. Example: in my Hungary game, when I conquered Zadar, Dubrovnik and Venice itself, in none of these provinces had Venice developed any harbor at all. Secondly, the AI seems to neglect even the most basic of resources. For instance, even in endgame there was NO amber resource to find in the whole world, and halfway even cattle was non-existent. Let alone lodestone. I hope you will take a look at this, because it really forces you to play Conqueror only and devalues any other play styles if you cannot even trade with other kingdoms for the most basic of resources.

So I took this achievement in-game as a hint for a possible dlc 😛 Looking at this map of 1200 (see images) it would make a lot of sense because they line out pretty perfectly. It’s pretty obvious we can’t have China/South East Asia without having India as well. And sub-Sahara Africa is probably not the logical choice for a first map extension. Which leaves only the New World, but since this is clearly a Late medieval setting, a map expansion to the East is probably more logical than going West as it stays within the framework and refers back to the Portuguese discovering the sea lanes to India just within the 1400’s. Thinking of what this expansion could entail, there’s - 2 more world religions: Buddhism and Hinduism - new interesting kingdoms, like Chola’s, Tibet, Vijanagara… - new elite troops, and war elephants 🙂 - new provincial features: tropical wildlife, monsoon winds, ocean pearl beds, exotic herbs - new goods: elephants, ivory, lateen sails, dhow ships, pearls, saffron & exotic spices, incense, caskets (luxury) As for the religions, Buddhism could be more focused on "peaceful" play, perhaps having no cleric class and instead buffing all other classes with piety and books. Or Hinduism with the caste system, perhaps has big buffs when Cleric is King. Then there's two more holy cities, like Varanasi or Madurai (Hindu) and Bodh Gaya (Buddhism). Could this this be a time to introduce unique buildings for historical/holy cities? Adding Haga Sophia, St Peter, Al-Aqsa, Kaaba etc for extra big settlements and special religious buffs? Along with Mahabodhi Temple and Meenakshi Temple for India? Some further speculation about the possible kingdoms: 1100 Pala Empire (Buddhism) 1200 Ghurids (Persian, Islam) Yadavas (Hindu) Chola’s (Hindu) Tibet (Buddhism) Uighur (Turkish, Islam) 1300 Mongols (Il-Khanate) Delhi Sulthanate (Islam) Vijanagara (Hindu) Btw, the map says: Trade Networks in the Middle Ages, ca. 1200 The yellow is what we have now. They squished Arabia a bit to make it fit. The orange is the possible extension. Again, here they can squish India a bit to make it fit nicely.

Here’s some “flavor” text from the book Metropolis: A History of Humankind’s Greatest Invention by Ben Wilson. This is about the great city of Baghdad: “The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur had traced out in cinders on bare earth the outline of what he ordained to be the intellectual, spiritual and commercial capital of the world. Purpose-built with the most sophisticated and dazzling urban design by an army of 100,000 architects, surveyors, engineers, carpenters, blacksmiths and labourers, the city was complete a mere four years after al-Mansur had founded it in 762. Within a few decades its population breached the million-person mark and at its zenith perhaps had as many as 2 million. An admirer of Euclid, the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur decreed that his city be perfectly round. The circumference of the massive wall was pierced by four equidistant gates. Four perfectly straight roads led from these gigantic gates to the centre, a circular city within the circular city. The people of Baghdad could see the enormous green dome of the imperial palace and the Great Mosque within this round precinct.” The real city, the city where people lived and worked, sprawled outside the walls of the circular metropolis. Baghdad was a city of many cities. Al-Mansur’s master urban planners placed four large districts outside the Round City, densely populated quarters with avenues, streets, apartment blocks, shops, mosques, gardens, hippodromes, bathhouses and souks. ‘Everything produced from the earth is available there,’ wrote Du Huan, a Chinese prisoner. ‘Carts carrying countless goods to markets, where everything is available and cheap. Brocade, embroidered silks, pearls and other gems are displayed all over markets and street shops.’ A writer describing the city in its prime recorded that ‘Here every merchant, and each merchandise, had an appointed street: and there were rows of shops, and of booths, and of courts, in each of those streets.’ The markets contained the wealth of the world: earthenware and porcelain from China; silks, carpets and fabrics from central Asia; plums from Shiraz; quinces from Jerusalem; Syrian figs; Egyptian pastries; Indian pepper and cardamom; east Asian spices. There were streets and souks reserved for livestock, horses, slaves, precious metals and stones, jewellery, carpets, carpentry, hardware, fish, bread, puddings, cheeses, sweetmeats, soaps and detergents, herbs and spices, and just about everything, in its allotted space, that the heart could desire. Watermelons for instance, packed in snow to keep them fresh, were express-couriered from Bukhara.”

It’s always nice to speculate about expansions when you love a game, so here’s my idea for a DLC. Name: Empire Main features: - become an Emperor, gain additional powers - Metropolis: create your Capital, awe of the world - Imperial Roads, Heraldry and Troops for extra advantages - new goods, new buildings, new province features This expansion aims to facilitate more engaging late-game play. As it stands now you will be swimming in gold with nothing left to build, while probably not being close to ruling as the Emperor of the World yet. This DLC aims to bridge that gap, by giving you ways to spend gold on more development, and while doing that address some issues that can feel slightly limiting when you are late game, like the lack of Knights, and the slow travel speed across the map. How it works: There are already formable nations in-game, so with some small tweaks these can be upgraded to forming empires, triggering the ability to become Emperor. An Emperor will have added bonuses, similar but better than the King-level, but more importantly, you will now be able to recruit 2 more Knights. This will help you rule your empire more effectively, and will also facilitate more armies in the field. The second big feature is the Metropolis. You can designate one city of your realm your Capital, and it will gain 4 additional regular building slots. On top of that you can now construct a CITADEL. This is the crown achievement of your Empire, and supposed to be a massive gold sink that will take a lot of building time to complete. I envision the Citadel feature as a separate, rather big UI screen, with a beautiful illustration of an imposing Citadel, with several rows of building slots. Something like this (sketchy): 3rd Level: PALACE: throne room, chapel, courtyard, gardens, mausoleum 2nd Level: BASILICA: domed church, cloister, scriptorium 1st Level: CITY: aristocratic housing, specialized workshops, exotic market Ground Level: WALLS: outer wall, inner wall, gate (Of course for the Islamic world this can be styled like the splendid Alhambra.) There will also be 2 more slots for Empire-wide bonuses: - Imperial Roads: 3 tiers (gain incremental travel speed) - Imperial Heraldry: 3 tiers (gain incremental culture + influence + fame, and some nice visual representation :) And of course Imperial Elite troops. Many of the Citadel buildings, Walls and upgrades are meant to be very expensive, say between 50-100k each, and take a long time to build. They will also need more goods as requisites, so I have come up with 8 suggestions as a general idea: Silk (robes) Sea snails (purple dye) Granite (colored brick) Bronze (doors) Perfume (accessory) Gems (crown) Also two new “profession goods” to construct the different stages of the Citadel: Mechanics Architects A few new province features will have to be made, and some of the new resources need some basic & intermediate buildings for the new good-chains as well. To accommodate this, as a final addition you will receive 5 extra building slots for the other Towns in your realm, to help out with resources and manpower. + 2 slots for 1 Large City + 1 slot for 3 Minor Cities The idea is that the endgame will now consist of you becoming an Empire and building your Metropolis, while you fight one or two other empires for the Crown of the World.