Sh0ppo from 9ers_Gaming

really nice addings! Highly appreciate the camera settings - was hoping for them since day one of the beta. The additional game settings are also really nice. The shattered provinces for players and also the AI was desperately needed 😄edit: not to mention waypoints for army movement

thx for the update and keeping us posted! Stream delay due to orchestral recording of the epic game soundtrack seems like a very fair trade off 😉 My only concern regarding army supply in the field is that it should not get tiresome. As long as you give it a bit of management and planning it should be rather durable. If you don't, well then make us really feel the punishment 😆 This would seem logical if you picture starving, powerless soldiers. So as long as there is not too much micro management I am totally on board with this concept and I really like the idea of the levies!

Thanks for the diary! Could you explain during the stream what exactly we see in the last screenshot with the angry Thessalonicans? What is the relationship behind this that makes them so angry about our marriage?

I like the idea of setting up your very unique game. However, I will mostly start historically since I directly wanna dive in into the action (just like in KoH1 😉). Maybe after a few games I will start playing around with setting in order to get good options for multiplayer. Could be interesting for multiplayer to have settings that make the whole game last less long for getting a clear winner - or maybe @Ivory Knightpersuades me to do weird and crazy stuff right from the beginning since he is as illusive as the night. 😜

Thanks for the latest diary! Really apreciate the artwork which is always very nice. I think it is a good idea to being able to send Clerics to the Papacy for bonus missions. In KoH 1 you had them just sitting around at court a lot. I wanna ask something regarding Clerics becoming Cardinals: Do you need anything else for them besides good relations with the Papacy? Maybe certain skills, "time on duty", experience level, completed bonus missions? *actually there has to be white smoke above the Sistine Chapel. Black smokes means no new pope could get elected and they have to vote again. (sorry for smart assing 😇 )

Thanks for the new diary. At first I was like "Dungeons are boring, what can you really invent and tell us here" but there ist some nice changes to them. My question is: Will the number of prisoners you can hold also increase automatically (not only through traditions and buildings) as your kingdom grows e.g. scaling with crown authority, number of provinces / towns,...? - adding to it: I really appreciate that prisoners don't need a space at your royal court anymore which never really made sense. And I really like the idea of inviting abandoned knights to your court. It will be fun when you turn marshalls and spies against their honorless home-kingdom *evil smirk*

How will manual battle resolution between 2 players be handled if there are more than 2 people in the multiplayer? And great job, multiplayer is one of the most anticipated features in KoH2 for me too!

What if you uploaded a more comic-version picture of yourself. There are sites and apps that do this pretty neat. Maybe that would be an idea

I see, spies can also deliver corrupted information. Nice feature xD

I feel the same worries as stated in the previous comments. =/ Especially the feature of instantly seeing the armies of another kingdome give's me a slight stomache ache. There would be a way to nerf it with high cost or the risk of capture and killing of the spy, loss of kingdom reputation, instant war with the foreign kingdom... for when sending a spy in and out a kingdom. But this mechanic can be exploited pretty big time. Plus it does not feel right - neither the current way nor my mentioned nerf-mechanics. Better maybe give it a timer, make it dependent on specific skills or traditions,... on how fast and how possible this works - that would make more sense for how the craft of espionage works. What I do like very much though is the option for hosts to limit spy activity. It sets clear rules for the gamestyle and gives you the possibility to decide whether you want to destroy friendships or not ;D (thank you in advance for that!)

Syre, we captured a spy. We don't know where he comes from and what his intentions are - but we could find out his name: Sir Bradley from the THQ Nordics

I just realized from the third screenshot that Lefkosia is rather located to the north of Cyprus and not really a coastal city.

sacking villiages stacks up your marshals provisions. But the really fun start when you got the plundering skill deployed and get a good amount of gold for each sacking

Nice dev diary, thank you for it. Very interesting and important topic indeed. I enjoy having settlements randomized because that let's you adapt to the game giving it more strategical possibilites and especially replayability (very important!). As I know from other games: nothing is more boring than having to play the exact same map over and over again in an endless-game / non-scenario game. And for your other question: I prefer adapting to the given geographical settings and only bend the circumstances where possible (e.g. through diplomacy, espionage, who to conquer first,...)

Totally agree with Yavor and DoVlaLegend - it makes me a little worried, too. Please stick to your plan of easy to get, hard to master. Make it Knights of Honor not Paradox. And as I suggested it in the past: make hard and more punishing options a game setting but not a given. This gives motivation for playing the game several times with different settings. So far I am very happy with how things seem to go and how the game develops. Don't punish us with punishing gameplay 😉

Hey Lighthope, like Brad says in the text: "the prestige bonus, espionage and counter-espionage bonus, and others." So there definitely will be espionage and counter-espionage for princesses which in my opinion totally makes sense. Your princess stays loyal to you since she is family but she is very close within a foreign royal court. That surely opens up some opportunities for some intel. I hope the devs will tell us a little more in the stream tomorrow about the other things they can do.

The princesses features are great. They bring spice to the whole marriage game and make it interesting. Do princesses have different skill-levels for espionage? (some being more talented than others, like with the talents of kings and princes in KoH1?)

Did you do focus groups for this playtesting with people who haven't played the game so far, or how did this work? For the different army sizes depending on the hiring province: Could you elaborate this more in the stream? What I am concerned with: What if I move a large host to a poorer province with less food production, can I still maintain the upkeep for it? Or may large armies eat faster than provisions can be supplied, basically? 😄 In KoH 1 you had some provinces with slow food production and small food storage bottlenecking the recovery of armies (hiring new troops and supplywise).

Thanks for the DevDiary, to begin with! Wasn't expecting one so early this year. I am wondering will there be opinion(s) on your royal court? (within nobility maybe?) Else, I am fine with the ideas. Especially for this feature I think that playing the game will be very important in order to finally make up your mind. It could influence your gameplay pretty strongly. So balancing is probably going to be a tough nut to crack with this one.

I forgot to ask: If the diplomats choose marriages, do they present several options we can choose from? Or do they just pick one and you say yes / no? And how do they choose possible prospects?

Great choice for the princesses, they were pretty pointless in KoH1 and a disadvantage. Is it possible to make a princess successor to the throne (maybe depending on the kingdom and the era)? Could you give us some examples for spy skills in the stream that are focussed on these relations? I would love to know whether it is possible to train one spie on detecting invasion plans and such, and another one who gets skilled in assassinations for example. Thank you in advance. Go forth and conquer, my lieges

For your question: I don't favour the Game of Thrones backstabbing style, I think this is very punishing especially for multiplayer. So make it maybe an option for the game session but don't make it a given - or make it so costly that you think twice, thrice or even four times about doing it. I mean, the name of the game contains "honor" 😉 If you would want to implement it, what would happen to diplomacy? Will your new allies like it or not - will it depend on each party? -, or will just everybody hate you and remember what you did? In general, I really like the idea of the new alliances. In KoH1 it had more downsides to form alliances than upsides.

I am totally your opinion here since I am generally not too fond of chances and luck. An idea however would be to make it a decission in the game set up before you start a new map. Anno does this vastly. So you can try different experiences and I think these options come out pretty different in the gameplay and how a session goes. But if I have to choose between one of the two options, I say: go for the full arsenal and less chance.

Hi Dev-Team, does maintaining a trade route mean a better relationship with the corresponding kingdom - maybe even a slightly but constantly improving one as long a the trading runs smoothly? And in addition to this: If so, what improves a relationship more: making gold or exchanging goods, since goods make the people happy and flourish? (are kingdom advantages as in KoH 1 actually still a thing, or do traditions replace them?) Wow, that turnded out to be a lot of questions. I thought I only had one. 😄 I thank thee in advance, go forth and develop a great game (=

Dear Devs, as a Day1 Knights of Honor fan (and inpatiently waiting for KoH2) I'd love be to be a part of the Knights of Honor Legacy, too. So here's my portrait, thank you in advance and keep up the good work! best, 9ers_Sh0ppo