Molivious

This is the same solution I've figured on my own as well. I'll add that after the initial loading of the game, I am free to open anything else in the background. No issues saving/loading from there until I relaunch the game. I'm guessing it's a case-to-case basis whether a computer can still handle some background apps before or after, but there's certainly something about the initial load that hogs memory.

I just realized the recording of the last dev stream hasn't been uploaded to youtube yet (THQ Nordic Inside)...can we request for that to be uploaded? (and in the future, soon after the stream ends?) I think having them available would make it easier to refer to others when they're hungry for more information that isn't included in these blog posts. I also listen to them occasionally like a podcast between my daily work, and I think it's wonderful that you uploaded them the first place. Thank you!

The gameplay is simply different; you can't treat or play it like it's a Christian or Muslim kingdom. It's a difficult religion to start with but it gains traction as your kingdom grows larger and more powerful by means of its belief system—which is a set of up to 4 skills from a selection of 8 that can be swapped at any point in the game for a low cost of 10/20/35/60 gold upkeep. Sure, there are fewer religious buildings to make, but it doesn't necessarily make piety or books too difficult to produce. And full Kingdom Advantage win is still possible, as Age of Enlightenment (which requires goods exclusive to Muslims and Christians) is replaced by Age of Triumph (a collection of goods that do not require additional religious buildings)

re-edit: after checking the files, looks like the triggers are both adopting population and establishing order.

So I just found this out. Turns out that if you are demanding tribute against an enemy during war, there are three factors that may add provinces to your options: Provinces that have adopted your culture Provinces that touch your kingdom's borders; and Towns under siege. (these provinces will be shaded red during land selection) This doesn't make giving away pieces of land any easier though. Just adding more info.

It's tied to culture now. So if you want to offer a province, then its culture must match the target kingdom; and if you want to demand for one, it must have adopted your own.

Disorder is what you deal with after you freshly capture a new province. Either you Establish Order with a Marshal or Adopt the Population with a cleric. Nevermind, looks like I was wrong.

the opportunities all come with some RNG, so it doesn't just appear. But it doesn't have additional requirements as far as I know (like bribing Merchants is the only way get the Rob Treasury option, bribing Diplomats and the courtesy skill for the assist elopement, bribing Marshals for Army Revolt, etc). This is why I normally run 3-4 spies in a semi-pacifist run. While you can't infiltrate a kingdom with a spy more than once, you could still infiltrate multiple kingdoms simultaneously to keep rolling RNG more times than the usual 1 spy most people run. Edit: Additionally, backing Governor Independence and Loyalists require disloyal subjects...so you'll want to keep sowing dissent, break the target kingdom's relations with others, and cause all kinds of chaos for governors to actually become disloyal. Bribing them also affects their loyalty with their kingdom, so I guess there is a steep requirement after all.

Plant a spy in their kingdoms and force them into a corner. Your spies can help you tiptoe around war by raising rebellions/loyalists that will fight for your cause; or you can provoke your target catholic kingdoms to declare war on you instead (this will make the clergy hate them, not you)—combine this with a diplomat holding a defensive pact against said kingdom and you should be set. And when peace talks happen, consider it heavily especially when your clerics approve, or initiate it yourself as soon as things are turning into your favor. Otherwise, you can just hire 2 or more clerics to keep good ties with the pope and your clergy while you play aggressive with marshals.

I really love the things you've done and the balance we currently see in the royal court, but I think diplomats need some of their more impactful actions (e.g. spouse search, rebel/loyalist aid) appear slightly more frequently. Is there a way to make that happen? Pacts, peace talks, and keeping good relations just become meaningless later in the game—when you can just pay or threaten your way into claiming land or gaining other great powers' favors. Compared to the merchants' infinite pool of gold, the spies' unmatched options for support, and the clerics' adaptability (AND pagan warrior shamans), diplomats just fail to keep their contributions relevant throughout the game. It's not like I'm asking for these more frequent actions to be failproof, but to make a small change that would merit keeping them in your court rather than completely replacing them with something more useful (i.e. any other class) in the late game is good enough.

A search function for the Royal Library would be a fantastic addition as well. I already love how much detail and work they've put into it, the tooltips, and ALT+ highlighters. Thing's great.

I'd think something similar to the old mechanic would be fun in the future: a prince may choose any class he wishes to pursue as an adult, but if he ever gets recalled from court and switches to a different class, he must relearn all skills in that class once again. It would make sense for the game to store their learned skills per class, so that if you switch from Marshal -> Merchant -> Marshal again, you'd still have all your past Marshal skills. This could be a tough request for the devs to work on the current game though. It looks simple enough if we're looking at it from the player's perspective...but how would it be handled by AI? Would they keep swapping too? Then there's the puppet status (e.g. bribes) too, and more. So this idea might be better thrown at a potential KoH3 instead. Also, rather than family interactions, I wish the royalty could also have more actions with their people instead. Right now we could only hold feasts during childbirth. Royalty-Exclusive missions/actions that could please the opinions of people regardless of their class could be a nice addition to the current selection. Additional actions, skills/slots, and more might be added by the community instead, so my hopes are the devs place their attention to better mod support instead.