Hello everyone! Everyone at Studio Black is busy putting the finishing touches on Khans of the Steppe ahead of its release next week, so this week’s dev diary is going to be a relatively short one. Without any further chatter, here are the achievements coming with Khans of the Steppe, and the changelog for the associated 1.16 “Chamfron” Update.
Achievements
Very Easy
Easy
Medium
Hard
Very Hard
Update 1.16.0 "Chamfron" Changelog
Reminder: This update is not live yet!
Expansion Features (Paid)
- Added the new Nomadic Government Type, heavily inspired by the nomads of the Eurasian Steppe, introducing a new playstyle around Herd and Migration.
- Migration allows nomadic rulers to move around the Great Steppe in search of better pasture lands. Negotiate with the locals or subjugate them by force.
- Herd is a new currency only available for Nomads that can be converted into Horde Riders and upgraded into better Men-at-Arms.
- Nomadic Vassal Contracts: focused on Herd instead of Levies.
- The Nomadic Capital Domicile – It represents the collection of yurts nomads have during migration. They include 8 new domicile buildings with 80+ new internal upgrades and a Domicile Culture/Faith mechanic with unique Decisions and Character Interactions.
- 5 Dominance levels for Nomads that govern their Domain and Vassal limit, which Decisions they can take and what titles they can target during migration.
- Nomads have a new Dread cap: 150.
- Nomadic Subjects and Courtiers have Obedience towards their overlord, measuring how likely they are to form factions, perform hostile plots and respect their decision of heir during succession.
- Gain someone's Obedience by demanding it, negotiating it or just impressing them through new Character Interactions and Activity Intents.
- Added new Schemes for Nomads, such as Steal Herd.
- Added 4 Vassal Directives just for nomadic vassals.
- New Council Positions for Nomads – the Kurultai Members.
- Kurultai Members may perform some familiar tasks like Increase County Control and Domestic Affairs, but they will also have 6 new tasks focused on Herd gain, Fertility management, Piety, Raiding, Culture Hybridization and Reformation and even Exploiting their own lands to gain some extra income but reduce the Fertility.
- A new Succession Type for nomads: the Kurultai Succession with different outcomes based on how Stable or Chaotic it is. Chaotic successions have effects such as herd loss, realm splits, or even realm dissolution (depending on realm size and number of disobedient kurultai members)
- Settlement Issues: new contracts available for nomadic rulers after migration, focusing on increasing the county control of their new area.
- The Way of the Nomad trait ensures that the nomadic lifestyle stays with their children for one generation after leaving the steppe, focusing on Cultural and Religious tolerance and opening up the possibility of becoming an adventurer.
- Added the Great Steppe Situation: a new regional mechanic for the Eurasian Steppe, divided in three geographical regions.
- Every county within the Great Steppe has County Fertility, regulating the Herd gained by the nomads holding them. With appropriate alerts for when the fertility is low, or when its time to migrate.
- The Steppe Seasons affect the County Fertility of their region, as well as the behavior of the nomadic rulers within, including Vassalization and Tributarization acceptance, bonuses to raiding and even free CBs. The seasons are visualized on the map.
- Gather the largest Herd of the steppe and become the Gurkhan, a formidable warrior marked for greatness, en route to become the Greatest of Khans.
- Added another new, unplayable government Type: Herders, which inhabit the Steppe and replenish Fertility, but lack any military strength.
- A new 1178 bookmark for Nomads: The Endless Sky.
- A new 1066 bookmark for Nomads: At the Gates.
- New game rules to make other areas Nomadic: Sápmi and Karelia, Arabia, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.
- Changed the map table to be adjusted based on situation, e.g. the Byzantine map table is only for Byzantines, and the plague one only happens during significant plagues
- Added a ‘Bring under Tribute’ CB for non-nomads to force an independent ruler into becoming your tributary
- Added a "become tributary" interaction, that lets you pledge yourself as tributary to an independent ruler of a government type that can have tributaries
- Added a "demand tributary" interaction, that lets nomad rulers demand tribute from independent neighbors
- Added two new non-nomadic tributary types and their obligation levels
- New Nomadic Court Positions: Stargazer, General, Chief Law Overseer, Siege Engineer, Quartermaster, Keeper of Horses and Chief Bodyguard, with new tasks that heavily interact with the Nomadic government and the Great Steppe.
- Added new Men-at-Arms for Nomads and Nomadic cultures
- Steppe Raiders
- Nomad Lancers
- Heavy Horse-Archers
- Torch-Bearers
- Mangudai
- Cataphract Archers
- Maturkan Warriors
- Added new Cultural Traditions to Cultures in the Great Steppe
- Iron Cavalry
- Wolves of the Deep Steppe
- Tribes of the North
- Devoted Horsemanship
- Added Siberian Permafrost county modifier to lands on the northeastern border of the map that highly synergizes with the Tribes of the North Cultural Tradition
- Added a new Blood Brother relationship type, hooked in as a variant of the friend relation
- Only available through the Swear Blood Brotherhood interaction
- Provides positive modifiers for useful blood brothers, and alliances between ruler blood brothers
- Added the new Tsaagaan Tsar Feast type, only available in the winter months, to celebrate the coming of a new year and obtain gifts from your guests.
- Added the new Nerge Hunt type – an activity focused on obtaining Martial and Prowess skillpoints, Commander Traits and trait experience.
- Added more than 70 new flavour events for nomads, including events related to the seasons, blood brotherhood and migration.
- Added severed head content to the execution interaction, allowing you to keep the heads of those you behead, or send the head to their successor
- Adds flavor events for Temujin and Jamukha, as well as a conqueror event to propel player Temujin to becoming Greatest of Khans
- Created a Greatest of Khans storyline, beginning with the Become Greatest of Khans decision
- A Great War of Defiance CB that neighbors launch to prevent the Gurkhan from becoming Greatest of Khans
- Revamped effects for the Greatest of Khans trait, and other bonuses
- The Offer Submission or Ruin interaction for the Greatest of Khans, and the related GoK Onslaught CB
- New Turkic, Mongolic and Iranian cultural nicknames for the Greatest of Khans
- Reform the Great Khaganate Decision, a capstone to the GoK’s success, allowing them to establish a huge de jure empire and choose a government type of their choice (gaining significant bonuses towards that form of rule)
- Added 25 new special Decisions for Nomads, including
- Decisions to switch government types
- Decisions to expand your realm
- Expand the Steppe region
- Introduce your heir to potential friends and blood brothers
- Manage fertility in your domain
- Hire courtiers and candidates for new court positions
- Added new Casus Bellis for nomad rulers, including Overrun Kingdom, Expand Dominance, Sovereignty, Humiliation, Retaliation, and Nomadic County/Duchy Quarrels
- Added a Paiza system with unique decisions and character interactions:
- Establish Paiza System
- Summon Wealthy Visitors: Paiza
- Abuse Gurkhan’s Authority
- Leverage Khan’s Authority
- Added a new Nomadic Dynasty Legacy focusing on Herd management, Fertility, Raiding and military might
- Revamped the old Mongol Invasion event chain, integrating new features and elements of the Greatest of Khans story
- Added the Burkhan Khaldun special building in Khentii.
- Added new ambience sounds and music tracks for nomads.
Game Content
- Added 5 new Raid Intents, available for Nomadic and Tribal armies
- Pillage
- Terrorize
- Capture
- Plunder
- Adventure
- Added Confederations: an agreement between tribal or nomadic rulers that commits them to joining one another's defensive wars
- Decision to Call for a Confederation
- The Offer Confederation interaction, which adds rulers to the confederation
- An Abandon Confederation decision for leaving your confederation
- A decision which allows you to turn your confederation into a kingdom-tier realm, with you as its monarch, and Confederation Elective succession for the created title
- Added new icon for Confederations
- Added a "Bring Under Tribute" CB for non-nomadic rulers
- Added potential friends, potential lovers, tributaries, and suzerains to the default activity guest invite rules
- Made it possible for domicile buildings to trigger specific map graphics for holdings
- Added character interaction for guardians to teach a commander trait to a ward
- Added memory for all participants of a successful hunt
- Added mercenary_hire_time_mult modifier affecting how long mercenary contracts last
- Added capital_fort_level and capital_additional_fort_level modifiers
- Updated councilor related events to include kurultai if they fit the context
- Subject contracts can now have prestige transfers as obligations
- Added new interaction category "tribute"
- Added a new Vassal Stance, Belligerent
Databases
- Renamed the kingdom of Mongolia to the kingdom of Ötuken
- Rearranged the starting Cultural Traditions for cultures in the Steppe
- St Wenceslaus Cathedral changes: the building now has 3 upgradable levels, renamed to Archcollegiate Church of St. Mary and St. Alexius, and moved to Łęczyca barony. The University special building has been returned to Kraków.
Bugfixes
- Removed duplicate raid icon in diplomatic_icons texture
- Fix to subject directive icons not being aligned properly
- The ai will actually check if they can feudalize holdings now–they’ve never done so.
- Fix to maximum amount of horizontal slots for terrain effects
- Fix to men at arms illustrations being stretched and cut too much at the top
- Fixed crash when calculating tax collector aptitude due to recursive call of script value
- Fixed sometimes misleading tooltips for rewards and wounds in hunts
- Fixed message when liege grants you a pardon
- Fixed reversed reason when rival gained from losing realm
- Fixed erroneous liege converting county notifications
- Fixed fellow vassal faction join event referring to you as the liege
- Fixed visuals for the soldier of the cross crusader trait event
- Fixed dangerous beast slain modifier sometimes being applied after hunting non-dangerous animals
- Characters will now use more correct cultural weapons in animations
- Improved readability of messages from tutor educate child task
- Non-Christian characters will no longer use the crucifix scepter prop in admin realms
- Made effect tooltip for pleasure dome more generic in case you don't have a barony selected
- Fixed missing councilor tooltip erroneously referencing councilor instead of kurultai member when playing as a nomad
- Revealed the actual gold cost behind Pay Homage
- Changed court position tooltip concept to be player contextual, and display officer instead, or in addition to, court position when appropriate
- Removed old holder of court position being oddly grateful that you replaced them
- Added missing capitalization to county titles
- Fixed appearance of monk in the necromancer event
- Players will now only be informed of faith creation when nearby or otherwise relevant to them
- Made it impossible to relocate your capital to a province with a disabled holding
- Fixed ai adventurers sometimes getting a hook on you because they completed a contract for your councilor
- Fixed bloody weddings and grand wedding events having incorrect scopes when disbursing rewards
- Fixed peasant faction war being not inherited on death of the primary defender
- When your charioteer loses, the corresponding team color illustration will show up
- The event treacherous slopes will now tell you of the outcome of the stewardship options
- The adventurer landed message will now only be shown for rulers within the same realm
- The event night attack will no longer wound the same poor follower multiple times
- Event “Nursing a Suspicion” can no longer make spouses suspicious about themselves
- 1178 start date: Sancho of Teruel, Tello Pedrez of Calatrava, Pedro II Manriquez of Molina, Fernando Rodrigez of Merida, now have feudal government
- Fixed a faulty trigger for managing courtiers
- Fixed a crash when removing a character from a great holy war
- Fixed the inverted descriptions of mozarabic_break_with_rome_decision of righteous and fundamentalist
- Fixed a few instances of incorrect usage of title tier as honorific
- Fixed a typo having an additional comma in the description of grand wedding in the wedding ceremony
- Fixed a bug where empire-tier title holders did not get the offer fealty malus for king-tier (or higher) titles
- Blocked armless people from doing actions which require using two hands
- Fixed an issue where newly landed Muslim rulers would get Male Preference instead of Male Only succession
Balance
- Dissolution factions now also destroy any kingdoms an emperor might hold, avoiding border gore/impotent dissolution faction outcomes where everyone's still in one realm
- Increased and standardized speed of adventurer contracts
- Added a decaying opinion malus for your former suzerain if you break the tributary relationship by pledging fealty to someone else
- Flat MaA bonuses from cultural traditions have been converted to percentage bonuses.
Art
- Turkic cultures of the west steppes now use The Legacy of Persia clothing assets as they are a better fit historically
- Added nomadic UI skin, inspired by Mongolian patterns, architecture and relief art. You can see elements from their yurts like the interior, fabrics with different patterns and symbols like the falcon.
- New Interfaces
- Migration
- Great Steppe Situation
- Added new event themes with associated icons
- Raid
- Migration
- Settlement
- Added Coat-of-Arms Shapes and Headers
- Confederation Header
- Nomad and Herder CoA Shapes
- Added situation modifier icons
- Some improvements to the bp3 portrait environments
- Added icons and illustrations for new nomadic Men-At-Arms unit types
- Mangudai
- Nomad Lancers
- Steppe Raiders
- Torch-Bearers
- Maturkan
- Keshig
- Heavy Cavalry Archers
- Cataphract Archers
- Added new icons for Levies and Nomadic Riders which are the nomadic counterparts of feudal levies.
- Succession
- Added new icons for Peaceful and Chaotic succession, both in a rendered and flat style.
- Added new headers and patterns for Peaceful & Chaotic Succession shown in the Succession tab in the Realm view
- New icons added for nomadic dominance levels with a frame for the active level and a special frame for the highest level, both active and inactive.
- Added new Kurultai task icons and adjusted frame shape to fit the nomadic theme better
- Support Herders
- Domestic Affairs
- Manage Fertility
- Exploit Lands
- Increase Control
- Organize Raiders
- Aid Stargazer
- Explore Cultures
- Added siberian permafrost modifier icon
- Added new court position icons
- Yurtchi
- Yeke Jarguchi
- Foreign Emissary
- Boyan
- Cherbi
- Court Astrologer
- Added a new icon for the Gurkhan
- Added Ovoo as temple mesh and illustration for settled Tengri rulers
- Added new Casus Belli icons
- Make Tributary
- Migration
- Retaliation
- Humiliations
- Added new icons for the new Tributary interactions
- Become Tributary
- Release Tributary
- Demand Tributary
- Cease Paying Tributary
- Fixed levitating cross-legged characters mena and indian thrones
- Added “Confederation” decision image.
- Adjusted decision illustrations so that they do not stretch when made into a button or when non-decision images are used as decisions
- Added northern tribes, wolves of the deep steppe and iron cavalry cultural tradition images
- Added new assets to the Event window:
- Added new orange Event Window header background for nomadic related events
- Added new Event type icons for nomadic and migration related events
- Burkhan Khaldun mesh and icon positioned in the map with the necessary terrain adjustments
- Added steppe royal court in 3 grandeur variants
- Added steppe royal court props : table, chests, panels, tugs, fireplaces, carpets, tapestry, banners, lectern, pedestals, main throne, spouse throne
- Added Nomadic Lifestyle trait icon.
- Added a new icon for the the Situations Map Mode
- New nomadic and herder settlement building icon added
- Added 6 steppe season illustrations
- Added Activity Type Illustrations
- Nerge
- Tsagaan Sar
- Added Holding Type Illustrations
- Herder Camp
- Nomad Camp
- Added Story Event Illustrations
- Great Khan
- The Great Steppe
- New loading screen
- Added new Raid Loot icon
- Added a new Artifact Icon for nomadic Paizas
- Added a new icon for Paiza Character Interactions
- Added mongol level 1 to 5 holding models
- Added herder holding model
- Added level 1 to 4 mongol wall models
- New illustration for nomadic horde added
- Added new ethnicities for the Steppe: Tibetan, Turkic, West Turkic and Mongol
- Nomadic Domicile
- Added new icons in both a rendered and flat style for the Nomadic Domicile depicting a yurt to better fit the nomadic theme.
- Added new Domicile map pin background texture that fits better with the nomadic theme
- Added new Domicile window assets
- Frame
- Header
- Paper texture
- Added new Domicile background that fits the steppe and nomadic Domicile layout
- Added new Nomadic Domicile buildings
- Main Yurt tier 1, 2 & 3
- Millet Storage
- Khan’s Champions Yurt
- Square of the Tumen
- Court Yurt
- Family Yurt
- Ovoo
- Barter Stalls
- Empty slots
- Added new smaller versions of the Nomadic Authority level icons to better fit in texts and use cases outside the Realm tab or nomadic HuD widget.
- Added nomad Legacy Track illustration and icon
- Added new icons for the Nomadic and Herder Government Types
- Added 10 clothes for steppe cultures
- Male commoner - Nomad's Deel
- Male low nobility - Cross-Over Coat with Fur Lining
- Male high nobility - Fine Cross-Over Coat with Fur Lining
- Male royalty - Khan's Embroidered Robe
- Male imperial - Khagan's Deel with Fur Coat
- Female commoner - Steppe Woman's Deel
- Female low nobility - Nomad Woman's Robe
- Female high nobility - Nomad Woman's Fine Robe
- Female royalty - Khanum's Coat with Embroidery
- Female imperial - Khatun's Splendid Robes
- Added 8 Headgear for steppe cultures
- Male/Female commoner - Fur-Brimmed Shepherd Hat
- Male nobility - Feathered Hat of the Steppe
- Male royalty - Golden Flower Crown
- Male imperial - Decorated Jonon Hat
- Female nobility 01 - Nomadic Pearl Headband
- Female nobility 02 - Khalkha Headdress with Pearl Bands
- Female royalty - Khanum's Embellished Gugu Hat
- Added 6 Hairstyles for steppe cultures
- Male hair 01 - Khitan Warrior Style
- Male hair 02 - Behind the Ear Braids
- Male hair 03 - Steppe Rider's Fine Braids
- Female hair 01 - Turkic Kirk Belik Braids
- Female hair 02 - Steppe Style with Cloth Covers
- Female hair 03 - Center-Parted with Decorated Covers
- Added 6 Beards for steppe cultures
- Mongol Style Mustache and Soul Patch
- Nomadic Warrior's Beard
- Nomad's Goatee
- Mongol Style Mustache
- Nomadic Warrior's Mustache
- Nomad's Mustache
- New event background illustrations
- Steppe Temple
- Steppe Evening
- Steppe Hunt
- Steppe City (Karakorum)
- Nomad Throne Room (and main menu version)
- Steppe camp day
- Steppe camp night
- Steppe Tent Interior
- Asian Rural Village
- Asian Rural Village Raid
- Added military horse units for nomads
- Added traveling horse units for nomads
- Added grazing sheep to the map
- Added horses to the map
- New character animations
- Standing next to horse
- Shepherd (with sheep!)
- Galloping with sword and shield
- Conversing while mounted
- Exhausted on horse animation
- Surveying while mounted
- Aggressive horse archer
- Idle horse archer
- New props
- 6 bows that can be drawn, both with and without arrows
- Characters will now drink from culturally relevant cups
- Sheep with variants representing ewes and rams, single color and spotted breeds
User modding
- Vassal contracts lists on governments have been replaced with separate “subject contract groups” that can be reused between governments and used to start tributaries.
- Most things “vassal contract” has been renamed “subject contract”.
- Triggers related to vassals now often have tributary counterparts.
- Triggers related to lieges now often have suzerain counterparts. Also overlord counterparts exist which acts on either liege or suzerain, depending on what the scoped character has.
- Add debug info in portrait tooltip for played animation
- Created a new raze_county script effect
- Added new graphical 'defeated' unit state for units that have just lost a combat
- Add holder_council_members and holder_tributaries as new elective succession candidate set types
- Added deny_powerful_vassal government rule, which disallows a ruler from becoming a powerful vassal if they have a government with this rule (no uppity Herders allowed)
- set_definitive_form now sets a default definite article for a title if the title does not already have a definite article set
- Added support for setting the definite article of a dynamically generated title
- Added on_actions for when a mercenary company is hired and dismissed
- Added an on_action for when a character changes government type
- Neighboring/_and_across_water_top_liege_realm/_owner script list variants now have suzerain variants as well
- Adds modifiers character_opinion_from_high_prowess_add and character_opinion_from_low_prowess_add, altering the character's opinion based on their prowess delta from define average_prowess_value
- Military_power compare trigger changes the ai_military_threat_modifier to use military_power instead of current/max_military_strength
- Adds land_neighboring_realm_with_tributaries and land_neighboring_realm_with_tributaries_owner script lists
- Added is_tributary_of_suzerain_or_above character trigger
- Added an ai.interaction_values console command to determine an ai character's willingness to take an interaction on available targets
- Localization used in the GUI for passing realm laws can now be customized per law
- Added new character interaction target list, neighboring_rulers_including_tributary_borders
- Added an ai_military_threat_modifier to be used in interactions that relate to the military threat value between two characters
- Added a parameter for government types to allow tributaries
- Added a parameter for government types for setting a scripted character template to be used when automatically generating characters for that type
- Amended the vassal_contract_set_obligation_level effect with a version for tributaries called tributary_contract_set_obligation_level
- Added a "hidden" animation in the default A-pose for testing purposes called bind_pose. It can be accessed in the portrait editor and is useful for checking clothing and body changes.
- Domiciles are now owned by special landless titles instead of characters. The Domicile owner will be the special title holder.
- Made it possible to set a scripted camera per triggered animation everywhere animations are used. This makes it possible to have horse and non-horse related triggered animations for one character position in the same event, for example.
- The hard-coded limit of the amount of Legitimacy types that can exist has been removed
- Each Legitimacy type can now have their own icon instead of sharing one
- Added 'on_combat_start' and 'on_combat_unit_join_side' on actions
- Added new script effects which allow more control over combat outcomes: ‘set_winner’, ‘force_win’, ‘set_disallowed_retreat’, ‘set_allow_early_retreat’, ‘set_skip_pursuit’
- New ‘Situation’ system added to which can be used to create dynamic region-based gameplay systems. (see Modding dev diary #168 for more details)
Interface
- Reworked the Realm window interface. Being one of our oldest panels, it was getting harder to work with and append new functionality to. While rewriting the code we also took the opportunity to improve its presentation coming on par with other modern windows while balancing the information load in each tab.
- Added an expanded interface of the Kurultai tasks since all members have access to eight tasks each, which caused the portraits to be covered by icons.
- Made paper styled UI skinnable, for example on contracts or letters. For now, mongolic cultures will have a more Eastern styled look to their paper interfaces.
- Court position type tooltip now show requirements instead of showing a courtier's fulfillment of the requirements
- Added contextual map icons for when raiders are raised and selected. Will show province loot within a range of selected raider armies owned by the player.
- Added new ‘Diplomatic Relations’ map mode which shows what current diplomatic relations the selected ruler has
- Exposed ‘File Transfer Speed’ setting to also be configurable in the multiplayer lobby settings
Multiplayer
- Improved default transfer speed for MP save games, which should reduce time to start MP games significantly. The default (High) is now about four times faster than before. New file transfer setting options ‘Very high’ and ‘Ultra’ added, for very fast connections. The previous default transfer speed configuration is still available as the ‘Medium’ setting.
And that’s all we have for today! There will be a short break in our dev diary schedule as we focus on the release and aftermath of Khans of the Steppe, but we’ll be back in a couple weeks to discuss how the release went, the feedback we’ve received from it, and how we’re responding to said feedback.
We hope you're as excited for Khans of the Steppe as we are!