ReptilePZ

Excellent update, it's very nice to see how well these changes are integrated into the existing systems without feeling cumbersome or unintuitive. One observation that I have as someone in the middle of a Teutonic campaign with a mission of... spreading the love of Christ to all the lands - forming a vassal only allows for the original religion of the destroyed kingdom to be applied (even after a successful conversion of the province) and, as you might imagine, this will not do in a campaign such as mine, rendering this option useless in that (admittedly, very specific) scenario. Keep up the great work, reallly appreciate these updates!

As the title says, it'd be nice to have the ability to shift-click move on the world map. The original game had this, battle scenarios have it, and, given that wandering into enemy territory results in a drop in relations with that kingdom, it'd be good to have the option to determine a marshal's path more preciesly without the need to babysit them and potentially forget that they're stood in the middle of the ocean, draining supplies and awaiting your next move command just because their default pathing took them marching through the heart of Europe and dozens of kingdoms.

I don't know if this is exactly what you're referring to, but I noticed that when the main menu gets loaded for the first time, it will use some hard-coded translations instead of the ones defined in the Texts folder, and this happens for all languages. These default strings seem to only be present for the menu and loading text, so if you then load up a game, the translations from the Texts folder will be used. If you then exit the loaded game and go back to the main menu, it will now also be using the strings defined in Texts. Changing languages also appears to cause the game to load in the Texts translations on the main menu, so one way to check that the game has picked up your translations would be to change to another language, then load up the language where you've placed your translatons again. I haven't been able to find a work-around that will force the game to use the translated strings on the menu even upon the initial load-in, but given that the correct translations are used everywhere else, I haven't bothered too much to find a solution - I'm sure this minor issue will be resolved as the devs integrate better modding support in the future, assuming everything there goes accoring to plan. I hope that helps answer your question. Anyway, I'm continuing to make progress with the Bulgarian translations, I'd say I now have about 4% of the texts translated (excluding the wiki entries), mostly going through the diplomatic messages - I'd say around 20% of those are done so far. Again, if there are any volunteers that would like to help with the translations, do let me know.

Hi, so I started work on translating the game to Bulgarian and am hoping to release a mod with these translation. I've only just started it, and there's quite a bit of text in the game as it stands, so it will probably take a while for me to do it on my own between work and everything, so anyone that wants to contribute to the project is more than welcome to (or if anyone has started on a translation mod already, it'd be nice to combine our efforts)! No technical knowledge required. Just send me a DM on here and we can start collaborating. Anyway, here's a veeeeery early preview: Cheers and happy holidays!

Sure, here is the save file, the Witch Hunt action is in the middle of being performed. Norway.zip

As the title says, I noticed that Witch Hunt seems to be getting the success chance bonuses from bribing foreign knights, which seems a bit odd.

In my current campaign, the Pope seems to have gained immortality, as he hasn't aged at all in a few generations. I suspect this to be a clever ploy by the AI to prevent my Cardinal from ever taking over, so I've decided to counter-attack by reporting its shenanigans. EDIT: I notcied that the latest patch has a fix for this issue, actually. However, it doesn't seem to retroacively fix the problem, so if you already have what I would like to imagine is an undead Pope that has resorted to heresy in order to unnaturally prolong his life, then you're stuck with him even on the new patch. What ended up solving my problem was going into the save files location and editing the world state there so that the Pope is no longer marked as, like I said, essentially an undead lich.

It sounds like you haven't improved your marshal skills beyond the initial level. When you learn a new skill with your king, you get it at its max level - 3. However, regular marshals learn their skills at level 1, and you then need to click again on those skills until they've each gone up to level 3 (a tooltip when you hover over a skill will show you its current level as well as the upgrade cost). Your marshal gains a level each time you upgrade a skill, which is why they're now only level 5 and will go up to level 15 (5*3) once you've upgraded all of their skills. The same applies to the rest of the members of your royal court (merchants/spies/clerics/diplomats).

I think the issue is that the AI kingdoms don't seem to really care about converting their provinces, which has a direct impact on province stability. Yet I get clerics from foreign kingdoms trying to (and failing! To the dungeons with the heretics! 😛 ) convert the provinces inside my kingdom into their religion when their own lands are full of paganism (or a different religion in general). It just appears to me like the AI doesn't understand religion, so it seems like an area that could use some love in future patches.

So, a bit more feedback... I don't know what causes it exactly - I know spies can do it if they bribe a cleric, or maybe it's just peganism being pegansm - but paganims seems OP and AI kingdoms (at least on Hard difficulty) don't seem to be too bothered about it 😅 Anyway, the game continues to be super addictive!

Hmm, I haven't really paid too much attention to how realistic the province borders are - I was referring more just to the UI looking and feeling nice. There's some small improvements over the original like allowing you to toggle on/off the visibility of certian elements and being to select them directly from the political view, a new Audinece button next to the king protrait, whereas in the first game you just kinda had to know that the portrait is clickable to open the Audience panel, etc. Anyway, a few more hours in and I've managed to establish my kingdom as the greatest power, although it's still very close and based mostly on trade, which is unusual for me compared to the original. I've also been able to do some proper conquest now and the siege mechanic I think makes more sense than in the original. Previously I would often end up having the upper hand in Sieges because my martial had a 50% boost from his siege skill, whereas now a siege does feel like more of a boost for the defending side, as it should. I like the mechanic of hiring extra men for your squads for a large amount of food upkeep as well as having the ability to take more food with your marshal. I ended up using these as temporary boosts rather than permanent features of an army, due to the high upkeep amount, and it works great in my opinion. If an army is passive, I can disable the troop boost and maybe export the food I get back from that for extra profit. However, if I am about to go on the offensive, I can reroute the food to get the extra troops, and if a siege is coming - get some siege equipment and extra food carts in preparation, it's a really nice system. One complaint I have with it, though, is that those slots are really well-hidden - I only noticed them when I started looking to get some siege equipment, I had no idea I could boost my squad size or get extra food carts until that moment. And I only knew to look for extra slots because of my knowledge of the original title. If I was new to the game, I likely would have missed them entirely. I also appreciate that the trading/diplomacy systmes have gotten more attention compared to the original game. It really feels like you can just create a trading or a diplomatic powerhouse of a kingdom rather than conquest really being the main focus.

I thought it might be nice to have a general thread for people to share their first impressions and/or reviews of the game. I'll start - very early impressions, as I've only been able to play for about 3 hours so far. As a KoH1 player, the game feels immediately familiar so it's very easy to pick up, but of course as you get into it, you begin to discover the new additions in the sequel. So far, it's been a very pleasant learning curve, playing on Hard, where I've felt challenged enough in the first few hours, having successfully defended a war against Wallachia and Bdin as Bulgaria, and eventually pushing back and conquiring my enemies with the help of my king's diplomatic work in bringing in Serbia as an ally (admittedly, Serbia did the heavy lifting in the offence, as it took me a while to recover and raise a solid army after defending on my own for such a long time against the invaders). It's early to get into specifics and give any deep assessment on how the new systems work or how they compare to the original, so what I will say is that the game has felt more involved than the original in these early stages, with more things to try and keep track of. In KoH1, the early game always felt a bit empty since there wasn't much requiring your attention, but the first few hours here have felt much more eventful. I can see the various ways the the devs have tried to balance some of the things that felt too easy in the original, like introducing commerce and global food upkeep to deal with exploive commercial/military growth when you should not really be able to support it yet and giving you more reasons to defend your towns/provinces from rebels/foreign forces, as those now contribute even more to your kingdom-wide economy. Like I said, it's too early to give any meaningul assessment of these, but so far I can see what their purpose is and they've certainly made the early game more challenging and interesting to manage. I do worry though that people - especially those unfamilair with the first game and how recruting worked there - may find local vs global food and levies confusing, as it's not a particularly intuitive concept and the difference is not obvious at a glance. I am also unsure how I feel about the new town building system. I feel more limited in terms of space compared to the original, which is probably a good thing. I also don't know what I think about the idea of upgrading a building once and those upgrades applying everywhere. On one hand, I can see how this will make things much smoother in the late game, as you simply need to build your base structures in new territory instead of needing to spend ages on getting all the upgrades too. On the other hand, it makes the early game more cumbersome, as upgrading a building means you will need to collect more gold before you can start constructing the base structure in other territories, since it now costs more, slowing things down a bit. Overall, it probably adds to the early game challenge while streamlining the late game, so I will likely end up liking the system in the long run. The game map looks beautiful and it's nice to see some of the small touches from the original, like peasants storlling around the kingdom, have been kept, as they help bring life to the world. The political view is equally nicely done and just as intuitive to use as in the first game, if not more so. The strategic battles may need some further optimisation though, in terms of performance. There is a noticable drop in framerate as you enter and play them, and I don't believe that drop is justified, given the fidelity on display. That isn't to say that the performance is really bad, just that it can likely be further improved. One thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be a proper tutorial for the game, which might turn off some new players. I remember playing the first game and finding it quite overwhelming at first, and the sequel has even more layers to it but with less of a tutorial, it seems to me. If this is meant to be an accessible grand strategy, I fear that it may only be so for those already familiar with the franchise, like myself. What I will say is that once you do know what's what, the UI and UX feel very elegant and intuitive. Overall, those first few hours flew by and I can't wait to continue playing. The game is a ton of fun, you can very clearly see the passion that was put into it, so thank you devs, you've done an excellent job!

There will be a dev stream "2 hours before the game goes live" at 10:00 CST (16:00 GMT), so I guess that means the game will launch at 12:00 CST (18:00 GMT). Source: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1667462949?t=01h12m04s

Ooh, look at this - an early Christmas present! 🎄 Very excited to finally get my hands on the game! Day 1 purchase for me, come what may.

So far, the game feels a bit more like a remake than a proper sequel to KoH. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as I think the formula was good, plus the original wasn't massively popular so it should feel pretty fresh to most. What held it back, in my opinion, was a lack of marketing, challenging AI and campaign multiplayer. I do hope it will get more of a marketing push closer to release, as I haven't seen a lot of that yet - the dev diaries are very informative, and thus much appreciated, however, their target is hardly the larger audience, but rather those that already closely follow the game's development. As for AI, we will have to wait and see... In fact, I would personally be very interested to see a dev diary on the topic - both AI in the world map and on the ground, during battles. Multiplayer seems to be in from the start, so I think that is certainly a big improvement over the original and has the potential to attract a lot of new players to the franchise. Other than that, a lot of positives and I wish the game and devs lots of success!

I've been trying to keep up with the dev diaries when I get the chance, but didn't realise there was a closed beta happening. A good sign that the game is getting closer and closer to being released. Was just thinking about mybe booting up the original game today and figured I'd check the community page when I saw the announcement. Anyway, I've signed up, hopefully I'm not too late 😅

Great stuff, the first game had a fantastic, memorable soundtrack so it's good to see the team is looking at it when developing the music for the sequel. One thing KoH1 didn't get so right was the lack of musical variety for different cultures (there was some, but very limited) so I'm glad this is being improved in KoH2. I have some questions regarding some of the implementation details for the adaptive sound. The post seems to use religion and culture interchangably, so I'm a bit confused about how the different musical styles are going to be split. For example, are Italy, Spain and England going to have the different styles to the soundtrack, or will the soundtrack mainly focus on religious differences such as the given examples of Muslim, Pagan and Christian? Also wondering how the game determines what style of music to play - is it based on where you're looking at on the map, or where you're doing something actively or what? Finally - does this change in music also apply to the RTS-style battles? If so, how does this work? As an example, if I am an Arabic army fighting a European army and the battle is happening in the middle of some Pagan territory, which style of music would the game pick? As a final note, the post talks about players picking their playlist. In my opinion, both options could be available to players in the Settings, as I can see different people having different preferences in that regard. What could be cool though - since the game is also doing Multiplayer - would be to let players pick a theme or a dominant instrument etc. that other players in that MP session hear when they're in their territory. Thanks for all your hard work, guys! Looking forward to hearing/seeing more of the game and finally getting my hands on it when it's ready!

Pretty much what it says in the title - I am wondering if KoH2 will have Bulgarian language support. I know KoH1 did not and Bulgarian is not language that is often supported in games, but given the fact that it's a Bulgarian dev studio working on the title, I think it would be nice to have it. I see on the Steam page that it is not listed among the supported languages, so I expect the answer to my question is "no" but I figured it's still worth asking. I've always wanted to introduce my father to KoH since he's a big strategy fan - he really enjoyed Tzar (the in-game rendition of "Откога се е, мила моя майно льо" is a favourite of his from the soundtrack 😉), which I know some of the devs working on KoH2 are behind - but you need to be able to understand diplomatic messages etc. and he doesn't speak English well, which essentially makes the game unplayable for him. And I suspect many others would benefit from a Bulgarian translation as well.

Played the first game a lot and loved it when it originally came out and just recently decided to start another playthrough in preparation of the KoH2 release. The biggest things imo in terms of suggestions for KoH2: - Improved AI. The game just gets too easy when you can easily exploit and outmaneuver the enemy AI in terms of army movement and in battles. Enemy AI just does not know how to deal with armies stacking ranged units. On the map, it is often too easy to fortify a camp and wait for an enemy army on its path. Another easy exploit - while in peace with another kingdom, you can position your troops inside enemy territory with the AI not really reacting, and then just declare war when you've positioned your troops and get an easy win. The list goes on - the main point is: the AI in the original was too easy to exploit which diminishes some of the fun. I hope it's something the devs are going to try and improve on, even though I understand there will still be exploits and AI weaknesses. - Improved diplomacy and QoL for diplomatic decisions. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to be able to negotiate with the AI when they ask me to go to war with another kingdom, or to be able to have a more detailed peace negotiation etc. However, my only options are either accept or decline. Same goes for when I request the AI to attack, ask for a royal marriage, money etc. - I wish I could pay them or offer them something (e.g. give them money to attack another kingdom, offer for me to attack their enemy if they pay me or let my prince marry their princess etc.). There was also an issue in cases where the diplomacy message blocks you from looking around the screen. As an example, a kingdom that I have an alliance pact with has invoked that pact. This blocks me from checking my relations with the kingdom they're asking me to attack so I can't make an informed decision whether I wish to honor my alliance pact or not. Allow the player to still access the rest of the UI in situations like that. - Improved Royal Court. The limited royal court slots pretty much guarantee that you will never use some of the roles that don't do much. E.g. I think I've only ever used marshals, spies, traders and sometimes clerics. Either make those other roles more viable, or have limited slots per roles so that players don't feel they're wasting a marshal slot when they hire a builder, for example. - Improved crusades. Crusades never really worked well in the original game and seemed like a missed opportunity. I think I only ever bothered letting one of my marshals go on a crusade once, saw how pointless it was and have rejected that option every time sice then. There are also issues with AI kingdoms sending marshals on a crusade - too often I see the AI sign peace with the enemy before the crusader army has even managed to attack which just ends the crusade. I realise crusades pretty much failed historically, so I guess in an ironic way this makes sense, but I imagine there are better ways to do represent that 😛 - Music. Less of a suggestion and more just something that I think really made the original memorable - the music was phenomenal. I understand Borislav Slavov - the original composer - is unavailable due to his work on Baldur's Gate 3, but I hope that the music in KoH2 is able to recapture the feeling of the original. These are some of my main suggestions, I'm really looking forward to Knights of Honor 2 and hope the game will be awesome.