Current Events > Crusader Kings 2 is Free-to-Play

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/
The base game, for now, at least. Everything else is -50% off for Paradox Con, but honestly -50% off isn't the best discount you can get on this stuff. The latest(last?) expansion, Holy Fury, is included.
If you ever wanted to give this a go, now's your chance. There's been some speculation that Paradox may announce Crusader Kings 3 soon.

If they are going to start CK3, I'm interested to see how well they can get players to migrate after investing so heavily in CK2.
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They're still planning future content for CK2 as far as I know
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I would rather see vicky 3. They literally just finished up ck2, im not ready to start over again.
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I'm probably in the minority here, but I actually don't want to see Vicky 3. I just can't imagine it not being watered down from what it was.
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solosnake posted...

I would rather see vicky 3. They literally just finished up ck2, im not ready to start over again.

I would be too, but they already shot down Vicky 3. My own suspicion is that it's too soon for CK3 and that they're going to announce something different.

We are thrilled to announce that to celebrate PDXCON Crusader Kings II is Free to Play! Here is your chance to get your hands on our cult medieval grand strategy game:

Also its weird the way they word it, not sure if this is free to play forever now or just for the event.

I hope its forever, i always thought a free base game is the best model going forward for paradox with how many dlcs they make
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solosnake posted...

We are thrilled to announce that to celebrate PDXCON Crusader Kings II is Free to Play! Here is your chance to get your hands on our cult medieval grand strategy game:

Also its weird the way they word it, not sure if this is free to play forever now or just for the event.

I hope its forever, i always thought a free base game is the best model going forward for paradox with how many dlcs they make

I've got to agree, that they should make the base games free or at least much cheaper at some point after release, but they're a proper corporation now so it's unlikely it would ever happen.

nice. need to see which dlc to pick up now
hered agot mod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBMALYSqyHQ" data-time="

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I keep waiting for the portrait, music and unit packs to go on more than 50% off, but it never happens lol
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solosnake posted...

I keep waiting for the portrait, music and unit packs to go on more than 50% off, but it never happens lol

I doubt they ever will. At one point DLC would go on sale for 75% quite often, but these days 50% seems to be the most. If CK3 does get announced, I imagine they might get bigger sales, but I wouldn't bet on it.

For what it's worth, they *will* be announcing the next Stellaris expansion at Paradox Con Saturday. EU4's next expansion isn't yet named, but the outlines of it is already known(it's Europe-focused, with special attention paid to the HRE. There have been regular dev diaries on their forums for months now). CK2, regardless of whether or not CK3 is coming soon, is towards or at the end of its life. And they already promised they wouldn't do any expansions for Imperator until they're done with a lengthy patch schedule(I think they're more than half-way through it now and the game is *supposedly* going in the right direction). Oh, and they already announced Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been delayed until Q3 2020(from Q1 2020).
So (secret project) and the Stellaris DLC are the big things we'll be learning about soon. Be sure to play plenty of CK2!

The way they handle DLC is so disgusting. I was lucky and got the CK 2 humble bundle recently. Fuck ever paying even half-price for it

Axiom posted...

The way they handle DLC is so disgusting. I was lucky and got the CK 2 humble bundle recently. Fuck ever paying even half-price for it

It's better with subsequent titles(EU4, HoI4, and Stellaris) because they actually lock a lot less content behind the DLCs(like, 75+% of the content in those games is in the free patches). CK2 needs DLC to play any non-Christian, non-feudal character *and* to unlock earlier start-dates, and that isn't good.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

It's better with subsequent titles(EU4, HoI4, and Stellaris) because they actually lock a lot less content behind the DLCs(like, 75+% of the content in those games is in the free patches). CK2 needs DLC to play any non-Christian, non-feudal character *and* to unlock earlier start-dates, and that isn't good.

I actually disagree. I preferred CK2s earlier way of handling it. By and large it came down to "want to play in region X? Get DLC Y. Don't want to play in region X? DLC Y is totally worthless for you. Or want to expand X part of the game. DLC Y is for you, don't want to expand X part of the game, DLC Y is totally worthless for you". There were some exceptions like Legacy of Rome's retinue, but overall more of CK2s DLC is skippable. If you don't want to play as a Muslim character Sord of Islam is pointless. If you dont' want to play in India, Raja's of India is pointless, if you don't want to play as a merchant repulic, The Republic is a waste of your money.

EU4 for instance on the other hand has a lot of regional DLCs that also include massively useful additions to the world at large. Mandate of Heaven is supposed to be focused on East Asia, but it is also needed to have the diplomatic macrobuilder, and after playing the game with the diplomatic macro builder, I can't imagine not using it. Common Sense for a silly amount of time was the only way to Develop your provinces, although to be far they did fairly recently add that to the base game.

Of all the main Paradox Development Studio games I'd say CK2 is the best, if you have no DLC, although HoI4 does come close, overall that one does have mostly region specific DLC, although the naval rework in Man the Guns, leads to me to think they are stopping that.