greywolf00
Keeper of the Watch
Yeah CK 2 is by far their biggest offender for DLC. Based on the preorder DLC plans for EU 4, I think it's just the beginning of this model for them.
CK 2 was on sale a few weeks ago. You should be able to get it for cheap sooner or later.
Thanks for the excellent advice!
"On a sidenote: Did they go nuts with DLC or what!?! "
To be fair, the vast majority of the DLC is purely cosmetic. The sprite packs, shield packs, portrait packs, and music packs do -nothing- but add different graphical and/or musical elements. Unless you get it all in a bundle or for a ridiculous price, I'd safely skip -all- of this.
Then there's the Ruler Designer DLC, which lets you design your own ruler from top-to-bottom (all in-game starting rulers are from history). I guess it's a neat idea, but, again, -completely- optional.
Of the true content DLCs, not even all of them are necessary. Sunset Invasion creates a ridiculous Aztec invasion from the West to counterbalance the fact that the East gets the Mongol invasions. I have the DLC, and I've never even had it on. Most people in the forum consider this DLC more-or-less a joke, although, honestly, it pretty much is. Paradox has basically said, "This one's for fun. Avoid it if you don't want it."
The Islamic DLC lets you play as Muslims, but, otherwise, I don't think it adds anything else. Get it if you want to play as the Muslims. Otherwise, feel free to skip.
The next two are recommended, but the base game still works fine without them. The Rome DLC completely changes the religious system, especially outside of Catholicism. It also adds standing armies/retinues, which is the main reason I'd get this. Otherwise, it just adds a bit of flavor to the Byzantines. The Merchant Republic DLC makes Republics playable and adds a bit of at trade system. I'd get it, though, again, not absolutely central to enjoying the game.
Finally, there's the Old Gods, which just came out, and which adds a couple hundred years, playable pagans, and all kinds of huge new features. This is easily the biggest expansion thus released and the most recommended. Still, you'd enjoy the base game without it.
The content DLCs are generally timed with big content patches, which add a lot of new stuff for free to the base game, so CK2 vanilla hasn't been abandoned or anything. There are even people who argue that vanilla is still the best way to play a typical Christian ruler, though I generally tend to run with most of the content DLC playing.
As for buying it, this stuff is all on mega sale constantly. GamersGate sells its own version, but everywhere else sells the Steam versions. Just keep in mind that you can't mix and match the two, so pick one platform and stick with it. Personally, I had the GG version at release. However, Amazon had a bundle with CK2 and -all- the pre-Old Gods DLC for 10 bucks. So.. I bought that, and I've just been using my Steam copy since. If you're willing to wait, you'll probably get all the DLCs you'd want for a song, though you'd probably be totally happy with the base game and -maybe- 2-3 of the major content DLCs.
Speaking of sunset invasion, did anyone else find idea bad and unfitting to whole concept?I hope they don't do similar dlc in EU 4.